Heavenly Hell
by CutePiglet
Summary: On his way to find a job in the music industry, Yami finds out his favorite band, Heavenly Hell, is holding auditions, because their lead guitarist left. All he can do is give it a try and hope that his life will change. AU. YxYY
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: **Haha, so funny story. I posted a preview of this fic on Tumblr like two months ago and now I've finally found the courage to post it here. I'm actually not so sure about this fic, since it's kind of lame in my eyes, it was just a random plot bunny, after all.

I dunno, maybe I can turn this into qualiteeeh~.

* * *

"Why am I doing this again?"

That was a good question. Twenty-two year old Yami Tanaka was standing in front of, what looked like, a completely deserted building. However, one could still hear the faint sounds of guitars playing some familiar songs.

_Heavenly Hell _was definitely one of his favorite bands and now they, the people whom he had been admiring for more than five years, were holding auditions for a lead guitarist, because their guitarist quit not too long ago. The reason for him leaving was still unknown, Yami remembered the rumors spreading around his neighborhood like fire.

He must have been crazy to think that he would actually have a _chance _to join their band. The guitar that was strapped onto his back had been his one and only guitar for more than fourteen years, but he was absolutely sure that all the other contestants were much better than him.

Not wanting to draw too much attention, he had decided to wear his usual black leather outfit with a couple of chains around his wrists and two belts around his hips. One of them hung loosely around his body, barely clinging to him.

After he had taken a deep breath, he slowly pushed the door open with his shoulder and stepped into the building, feeling the carpeted floor sinking beneath boots. The faint sounds of the familiar songs became louder with each step he took. He was standing in the hall, even the hall looked huge, just like he had imagined. The only thing that made him blink a couple of times, was the emptiness. He could hear one guitar in the background, but overall, the place was deserted. There was a small desk, with a small blackboard in front of it.

The sign had a huge arrow on it, with the words:

"_Welcome to the auditions for Heavenly Hell!" _written in curly letters. Underneath the arrow was a small paragraph with further instructions.

Yami smiled, even though it felt like a fake smile to himself, he still had no idea why he was standing here. They were probably looking for some kind of professional artist who was looking for something new, not some amateur who had not even had any singing lessons in his entire life. His parents did support him all the way after he moved out of the house right after high school. He had no idea how to get into the music industry, this was the only thing he could possible think of.

"Man, I totally screwed up those last chords…" A tall guy with black hair and blue eyes walked out, quite defeated, holding his guitar with only one hand. Yami looked at the guy who was probably not a lot older than himself and gave him an apologizing smile. "Good luck, dude, they won't go easy on you."

"Thanks." The stranger pointed over his shoulder with his thumb to give Yami directions and sulkily walked out of the building. It was kind of obvious why the place was deserted. Of course it was extremely hard to get into a band like this, they would probably send him out right away. Shaking his head, he straightened up and closed his eyes. He would grab this chance and make the best out of it, he had made a promise to himself after all. Never let a chance slip, especially not when they can change your life in the blink of an eye.

He looked around to make sure no one else was there and walked towards the room the guy had pointed at. He opened the doors and his jaw hit the ground. The auditorium was even bigger than he had hoped, he could hear his own footsteps echoing through the entire room. In the middle row were his two idols, and he felt his legs lightly buckling under his weight at the sight.

Yugi Mutou, lead singer was sitting in the middle. Yami studied him the best he could from where he stood; his blond bangs hanging devilishly close to his eyes, making the purple orbs almost disappear behind them, the kind smile on his lips while he was talking to his friend, his pale skin glowing brightly in the spotlight, Yami admired everything about him. He always had.

And right next to him, Katsuya Jounouchi, his blond hair draped over his entire face, and his brown eyes sparkling kindly at his friend, who was now laughing softly at one of his jokes. There were both dressed in casual clothes, the same kind they always wore in their clips and when they were on stage. They did not have a certain style, which Yami liked, at least they were not going to judge him on his clothes.

He sniffed, and started climbing the few steps before he stood in front of the microphone stand. They had not noticed him yet, they were too busy with their conversation and Yami felt his nose going red, he was not sure if he had to begin or clear his throat to draw their attention.

Instead of clearing his throat, he almost dropped his guitar, but managed to grab it before it would break into a million pieces. It hit the microphone, causing the said object to hit the floor, creating a loud screeching noise. Both band members jumped up in their seats and turned back to the young adult on the stage, who was now desperately trying to get back on his feet with the microphone.

"Sorry, my guitar slipped," he said lamely into the microphone. He almost flinched when he heard his own voice erupting from the enormous speakers next to the stage he was standing on. "H-hi." Yugi and Jounouchi looked at each other before laughing softly, Jounouchi turned around his chair to hide the grin on his face and Yugi just shook his head, leaning forward so he could talk into his own microphone.

"It's okay, everyone's nervous. Please tell us a little about yourself. After such an entrance, I'm actually kind of interested in you." The kind smile was back on his lips and Yami appreciated the fact that they didn't send him away, like he had expected them to. He straightened up, feeling his confidence rise in his chest.

"My name is Yami Tanaka, I'm twenty-two years old and I'm currently looking for a job. I've always wanted to be a musician and your band has always been a great inspiration for me, especially you, Yugi, because you became famous at such a young age. It's my dream to stand on stage and get that amazing feeling rushing through you when you see the faces of the people that admire you. I've been on stage several times and it's like a drug to me, I just can't get enough of it. And—" he stopped, noticing that he was babbling. Yugi had placed his head on his folded hands and was smiling down at him, he felt very hot and cleared his throat. "… Yeah, that's it."

"I gotta say that I really like you, Yami," Yugi said gently. "How long have you been playing the guitar?" Yami looked down at the instrument, his hands were resting on the strings, eagerly waiting to hit them, he looked to his right, his lips inches away from the microphone.

"For about fourteen years. I also play the drums, but I wasn't really sure if I should have brought those, they're kind of heavy. I'm sorry if I sound lazy." Yugi burst out laughing, leaning back in his chair so he would not damage the microphone with his loud voice. Yami could only rub the back of his neck awkwardly, he had not expected his audition to go like _this. _This was embarrassing.

Jounouchi had turned back to him, with that lame grin still plastered on his face. Yugi leaned towards the microphone again and let out his last chuckle before he spoke again,

"Okay. Let's finish this before our next tour. What are you going to sing?"

At this point, Yami's fingers were shaking against his guitar, he cracked a smile, hoping that Yugi would approve of his idea.

"A song that I wrote myself. If that's alright with you?"

Yugi beamed. "Sure, go ahead. Ready when you are." He leaned back into his chair after he had written some things down and gave him a reassuring smile. Yami took a step back and let out a soft breath through his nose, closing his eyes. He quickly placed his left fingers on the strings and let his right fingers graze over them.

The beautiful chord echoed softly and he smiled, moving his hand up and down, tapping his foot to the rhythm. His lips parted and the haunting feelings of his past poured out through the lyrics he had written when he was still a teenager.

The feelings he had for that special girl that always sat in the back of class, she was way too shy to talk to anyone and he would always remember her capturing blue eyes. Those eyes resembled all those feelings she kept hidden inside her, he never got the chance to tell her how he felt about her. They became friends in his first year, hung out every now and then, she was always very busy with her schoolwork, he never got mad at her for it, but he missed her every time she said,

"I have to leave. I'm sorry." Her brown hair had flown behind her, exposing the little bits of the pale skin on her skinny neck. The swift movements of her legs running over the grass as she waved at him with that absent minded smile of hers. He never got the chance to tell her how he truly felt about her, she saw him as a best friend, a friend whom she could talk to when she needed to.

A friend that would never be more than a friend. But he meant a lot to her and that was almost satisfying enough. He finished the song with a small whisper, saying that he loved her more than anything, his voice shook with emotion and he slowly pulled back. He looked at his guitar, playing a few more chords, humming along with the notes and finished with one last flick of his wrist.

He looked up, his blood red eyes looking hopefully at the band members, his hands were still shaking from the adrenaline that was rushing through his veins. Yugi's mouth was slightly hanging open, and Jounouchi's eyes were wide. Yami tried to swallow the lump that had formed his throat, his mouth felt dry and he quickly took a step back. He was about to leave when Yugi and Jounouchi stood up, clapping.

For the second time that day, his jaw dropped. _The _band members of Heavenly Hell were clapping for _him. _He was probably still standing outside, daydreaming.

"Yami, that was amazing!" Yugi cheered. "How long have you been writing your own songs?" Yami felt the blood rising to his face, he was not used to compliments, at all. He would always practice alone in his room and that would always end up in a mess, where he would just laugh at himself for even trying.

"I started a couple of years ago. I would always play around with chords and the words kind of floated along."

Yugi and Jounouchi looked at each other, quite impressed, making Yami feel even stupider. He was feeling very hot, he wanted to get out of that room as soon as possible. For the first time, Jounouchi spoke.

"First off, I really like you, Yami, you have a great personality. And your voice is deep and also kind of raspy, you sing with your heart and that's what we're looking for." A goofy smile appeared on Yami's face, he muttered a small thanks against the microphone and Yugi laughed softly.

"Give us your phone number. You'll hear from us soon."

* * *

**Author's note: **Short prologue is short. If I'm gonna continue this, the chapters will be much longer, my standard is 4,000 - 5,000. Most of the time.

Anyway, I know this fic is totally random, GAH. It's based off my own dream of becoming a musician. *hides her instruments, songs and everything else related to music* Maybe I shouldn't have said that, I'm so lame, but meh, whatever. One can always dream, right? *cheeky grin*

Please leave a review on your way out~!


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: **Nyuuuh, so many nice reviews, you guys make me so happy, thank you~!

I never thought people would like this story, I hadn't even written an outline yet, which I always do because my mind is all over the place and I tend to forget my own plot. *nerd alert*

Anyway, Imma be honest and say that there's slight Revolutionshipping in this fic, BUT BEFORE you throw tomatoes at me, keep in mind that there will be Puzzleshipping.

I'm a horrible updater, I know, I'll try to update as soon as possible, please be patient. x3

Enjoy the new chapter!

* * *

With one of his rare goofy grins, Yami opened the door of his small apartment. The door swung open for him and he walked in, closing it with his shoulder blades, sliding to the floor. His guitar was carefully laid down next to him on the floor and he sighed, closing his eyes. This had to be a dream, Yugi's eyes had sparkled so brightly as if Yami was a special treasure and had to grab it before it was gone.

It was the same look Yami had had in his eyes when he saw Anzu for the first time. His heart had made a small jump in his chest and a warm pleasant feeling had made its way through his entire body, making him glow all over. He raised his head, slowly opening his eyes, they slowly drifted off to the creaks in the wall, swimming with tears.

Anzu was the first girl he had truly loved, he still loved her very dearly, but her father had found a job on the other side of the country so they had to move. She had given him the longest hug she had ever given him and left. Her hand had slipped down his muscular arm, towards his hand where she put a small note with her number written on it.

He still had that note, somewhere in a drawer, he had put it away that day. There was still contact between the two, but only every once in a while, she had a very busy life since she started working at her father's company. She barely had time to make any phone calls, they were always very hasty and quick, they never lasted that long; about ten minutes, if he was lucky.

He was 17 at the time, he had never gotten the chance to tell her his heart's desire; they had been friends for about a year before she left. He kept his feelings bottled up, none of his other friends knew about it and neither did his mother, so he put his feelings in a song. His guitar had been lying on the floor in his room, he had picked it up and the random chords echoed softly through his room.

The words glided over the chords, he would adjust his voice to the chord he had played and it eventually turned into a full song. Never ever had he written it down, not even the chords, he did not need to, the song was tattooed across his heart.

And with that song, he had made it through the auditions.

"I guess I owe Anzu big time," he muttered dryly to himself, a not-amused smile crossing his features. One single tear crawled out of the corner of his eye and slowly slid down his trembling cheek. It had hurt to play that song again, especially in front of the two people he had admired for so long.

Amaya, his cat, looked around the corner, her fluffy white head tipped to one side. Yami smiled and beckoned her to come closer, which she happily did. She was a very tiny cat, only a couple of months old, Yami had become a tad bit lonely over the years after he had moved out of the house, so he started looking for a pet. Amaya rubbed her head against his lower legs that were sprawled out on the carpeted floor now.

"Come here…" he held out his hands and gently picked her up, placing her on top of his kneecaps. She padded around, curiously scratching at his leather pants with her tiny claws. He absently watched her, carefully stroking her small head. Her bright green eyes looked up to her owner, she mewled softly and licked the tip of his fingers with her small, raw tongue.

Yami played a bit with her before he pulled up his knees, causing Amaya to cling to his pants, making him chuckle. He pulled out his phone and flipped it open, his fingers rapidly pressing the buttons attached to it.

He selected a contact and pressed the green button, raising the device to his ear where he could hear the small beeping sounds. His heart had started beating faster after a few seconds, his eyes widened just a bit when he heard a small approving _click. _

"Hello?"

Yami pressed his lips together at hearing the familiar voice once again. "Hey, it's me."

* * *

"Man, this is gonna be harder than I thought," Jounouchi said after another candidate had left the auditorium with a defeated smile. Yugi placed his head in his hand, tapping the lists of names with the pink eraser of his pencil. They had written down quite a few names that would be suitable for their band, dozens of people had managed to get their name on that list already.

"Yeah. It's hard to take Otogi's place, he was truly amazing," Yugi said with a small dreamy smile as the good old memories took over. Otogi had been their previous lead guitarist, but he quit because he had broken his wrist and once you have broken your wrist, it will never return to normal again.

He had told them that he would quit because he did not want to ruin the reputation they had worked so hard for to get. Yugi had tried to reason with him, he wanted him to be in the band until they would quit for good, he had even offered to take his place, but Otogi had only shaken his head and had walked away after giving them a salute with two fingers.

"We still have a few candidates to go, it's almost five," Jounouchi said, shaking him out of his dear memories. Yugi blinked and looked at him, giving a small nod in agreement. As if on queue, a tall girl with long blonde hair walked in. She was wearing dark purple boots, a short purple skirt and a white tank top that was a bit too short, allowing her slim stomach to flash the entire world.

Her flaming violet eyes showed nothing but confidence and her painted red lips were turned up into a small smile. From the corner of his eyes, Yugi saw Jounouchi leaning over the desk to get a better look at the stranger. He had always had a thing for blondes. She walked over to the microphone and pulled her guitar from her back, placing her fingers on the strings.

After rolling his eyes at his friend, Yugi cleared his throat and put on his kind smile. "Good evening."

"Evening, guys," the woman said with a small wink. "The name's Mai Kujaku, twenty-three years old and I've been playing the guitar for as long as I remember. I came here to blow you two away and show the world that a band can also have a woman as lead guitarist."

Yugi's black eyebrows disappeared under his blond bangs. Well, that was a breath of fresh air. Not one single girl had entered the auditorium today and if it had happened, he had not expected _this_.

"Damn, she's hot…" Jounouchi mumbled after he had pulled away from his own microphone to make sure she would not hear him. His brown eyes were glued to her body and Yugi could just imagine Jounouchi undressing her with his eyes. She may have been pretty, he had to agree, but that did not say anything. He was not after looks, he was looking for talent, and apparently he needed to remind Jounouchi of that.

"So, what are you gonna play for us?"

"Those Eyes of Yours," Mai answered smugly, the smirk never leaving her face. Yugi's lips twitched, one of their first songs that he had written himself. He bowed his head and raised his hand.

"All right. Good luck."

She looked down at her guitar and tapped the wood a few times to get the rhythm right. Her lips were almost pressed against the microphone as she started singing. Yugi was busy writing things down as he closely listened to her clear voice. He had to admit that was good. Amazing, if he was going to be honest.

This song was about a loved one he had lost during his youth. He had been too young to remember his face, but he would never forget those eyes. The eyes that had always shone with glee and love. The eyes of his father. He wrote this song when he started playing the guitar; right after his father had fallen into a never-ending sleep.

A few years, when his teenage years had started, he rewrote a few things in the song, this song was only a memory of his father. All the things he could remember about his hero, how he had always taken care of him and helped him when he needed it. He loved him more than anything and when he got sick, he clung to him like superglue, never wanting to let go.

One day in the hospital, he had woken up next to him. He had tried to shake him awake, but he never opened those piercing eyes again. He would never see them again, he even loved them when they had lost their eyes.

If only he could open his eyes for him again one day.

All those memories played through his head as Mai sung that song. Her voice was breathtakingly beautiful, it was a pretty slow song and she had kept the original pace, unlike other candidates had done (which he had not really appreciated). There was a really high note at the end and his ears perked when she managed to reach that note.

And the note lingered in the air longer than it was supposed to, she had closed her eyes and bended her knees. Something she had added herself, probably to impress them.

And it had worked.

"You were incredible! Where have you been all my life?" Jounouchi yelled at her. Mai chuckled softly and shrugged playfully. Jounouchi's compliments swirled around in the air like leaves in the autumn wind, Yugi quickly shoved his elbow in his side to stop him from blabbering. Mai was standing there with her arms folded over her chest, clearly enjoying the many compliments she had received.

"Give us your number, you will hear from us soon," Yugi said before Jounouchi could say anything else. Mai blinked a couple of times before she climbed the stairs in those incredible high heels. Yugi had not expected her to climb the stairs, all the other candidates had simply said it out loud for them. After a few seconds, she stood next to him, her sweet perfume washed over him and he felt the blood rushing to his face.

She leaned down, grabbed one of the pencils and wrote her number down on a post-it. She ripped it off the small pile, gave it a kiss and put it on Jounouchi's forehead. Yugi could see the goofy smile appearing on Jounouchi's face and his cheeks flushed with a bright red glow.

"Let me know, you two." She flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder and walked towards the exit.

Yugi knew one thing for sure. They would get a lot of male fans with her on the team.

"_She is so in!_" Jounouchi exclaimed when she had closed the door behind her. Yugi almost jumped out of his seat at his friend's words, those same words echoed around in his head thanks to him. "Wow." Jounouchi took the post-it off his face and stared at it, running the tip of his finger over the red lipstick mark.

"Jounouchi-kun…" Yugi shook his head. The new candidate walked in and he quickly sat up straight again. Jounouchi was lost in his daydreams, he was lazily staring at the ceiling while Yugi had to pay attention to the last few candidates. They were not nearly as captivating as Mai was, even though he hated to admit it, she had definitely left her mark on him.

The last ten minutes flew by and Yugi walked down to lock the doors so they could have some privacy (cleaners were already walking around and he did not want any rumors to spread). He walked back to his friend and sat on the desk, gathering the few papers with the names on it.

"Okay, let's review."

* * *

It was not that far away, Domino Plaza was in the center and he only lived a few blocks away. He checked his phone to see if he still had some time and unfortunately saw that he was late. Picking up the pace, he ran towards the huge fountain where they were supposed to meet and looked around.

There was no sign of her anywhere. He checked his phone again, he was ten minutes late. That was not _too _bad, was it?

"Yami!" Suddenly, a pair of arms was wrapped around his neck from behind and he felt someone's body pressing against his back. "I'm _so _glad you called!"

Yami was speechless for just a moment, his eyes shone brightly and he turned around to see those ocean eyes he had missed so much.

Anzu Mazaki was standing in front of him, her short brown hair was a bit shorter and her long bangs were clipped back with a small pink hairclip. She was wearing a simple white crop top and a light yellow skirt that stopped right above her knees, it was a strapless top, her pale shoulders were exposed and over one of those shoulders hung a blue bag. Her eyes shone brightly, she was obviously happy to see him and was not afraid to show it.

Yami could stare at her all day, she was stunningly beautiful.

"Anzu…" Yami breathed, blinking a few times. She chuckled and took his hand in hers.

"Yes, it's me. I missed you, too. So, let's go over to that smoothie bar. You sounded really excited on the phone, you have to tell me what happened!" Before he could say another word, she pulled him along to one of the nearest smoothie bars like he had suggested on the phone.

He had called her back at his apartment and told her had to tell her something important. Quite frankly, he had not expected her to be in town right now, but she was here to visit her cousin for her upcoming birthday. She would stay here for the rest of the week, it had taken Yami a lot of willpower to keep himself from inviting her over to his apartment.

Well, his apartment was a mess anyway.

Anzu sounded really happy on the phone when he suggested going out for a drink. The eagerness practically made his heart jump out of his chest and he could not stop grinning for at least a couple of minutes.

He obviously still had feelings for her, it was stupid of him, he knew for sure that after all these years she would have a boyfriend, or fiancée, or maybe even a husband. There was no reason he had called her first, his mother was always busy until late in the evening, his best friend Mana was also busy.

"Yami?"

"… Hm, what?"

"I just asked you what you wanted to talk about."

"Right."

He had been so lost in thought that he had not noticed that they were already sitting at a white round table underneath a baby blue parasol. Anzu was looking at him with her chin resting on top of her folded fingers, an amused smile on her lips.

"You haven't changed, at all. You're still you. I like that," she said softly.

Yami wanted to tell her that she was even prettier than he could remember. She looked more confident than she did before, and it was quite appealing. That same bubbly smile had never left her face, though, it was one of those things he liked about her the most.

"You'll never guess what happened," he said, smirked and leaning forward a bit. Well, a little bragging couldn't hurt, right?

Anzu mirrored his smirk and leaned back, holding her elbows in her hands as she folded her arms over her chest. "Oh, well… You getting married?"

Yami blinked, he had not expected that. "No."

"You won the lottery and you're sharing the money with me?"

He chuckled softly and shook his head, the smirk still on his face. "No, and if I did, I wouldn't give you anything." Anzu narrowed her eyes and threw her napkin at him, which was not a very big success since it flew away in the wind. This caused Yami to laugh even harder and Anzu to blush a bit.

"You'll never guess it, Anzu."

"Then tell me," she said eagerly, shifting in her seat like an excited pet.

"I auditioned for Heavenly Hell." Her mouth fell open at this, it almost hit the table and she shook her head a little. She laid her small bag on the table and let out a breath.

"You-you, but how and… _Oh my god!_" The next thing came as a total surprise, she leapt at him and threw her arms around his neck for the second time that day. He hesitantly put his hands on her waist, resisting the urge to stroke the soft skin he could feel beneath his fingers. "Tell me everything!" The words brushed against his neck like a feather, so soft and delicate.

He felt so vulnerable for having these feelings after all these years, it seems they had only grown. She pulled back and placed the ball of her hands on the table so she could lean on it, listening to every word he was saying.

When the story was told for the very first time, he casually let out the awkward beginning (he had his pride, too), and told her about Yugi's reaction. Her grin widened with each passing word and he gave her a cheeky smile when he was done. Anzu let out what sounded like a squeal and jumped off the table, grabbing his hands and squeezing them.

"I'm so happy for you!" Her voice was shaking with anticipation. "W-when are they going to call you?" Yami felt his fingers going numb in the iron grip of her hands, she was cutting off his circulation. But he didn't really mind, she was happy for him and that was all he needed to know right now.

"I'm not sure, Yugi said 'soon.' Probably not today, since the auditions are not over, yet," he explained. "I'm sure there will be lots of other good musicians that will make them fall in love with their voices."

Anzu let go of his hand and shook her head. "Don't be a pessimist, Yami."

"I'm not. Just a realist," Yami stated matter-of-factly with a faint grin. Anzu rolled her eyes and chuckled softly at his lame joke. A waitress walked over to them and asked them if they were ready to order. It was a young girl, with a side braid, her brown hair hung loosely over her left shoulder and she had large brown eyes. She looked at them with her notepad in her hand, tapping the paper with her blue pen.

"Pineapple mango smoothie, please," Anzu said kindly.

"And a banana strawberry smoothie for me," Yami said with a polite smile. She wrote everything down and told them she would be back soon. Anzu sat back down in her own chair and laid her arms on the table. Yami tried not to stare at her as she absently tapped her manicured nails on the cloth, her nails had a small clear coat on them, making them sparkle in the sun.

She was twirling her brown hair around one of her fingers and she stared at the people passing by. She looked rather distracted, or at least, Yami thought she did. She always twirled her hair around her finger if something was on her mind; maybe she was just processing what Yami had just told her.

The silence between them lasted for a couple of minutes and was about to continue, until the waitress came back with their drinks. Yami took his smoothie and put the bright yellow straw in his mouth, the fresh, sweet liquid was a pure bliss. Anzu was playing with her straw, sipping at her drink every now and then, but most of the time, she kept her eyes on the drink.

Yami closed his eyes for a good few seconds, this was not going to work. He had expected Anzu to explode with stories about her new life, maybe her parents got a new job, maybe she bought a new house, maybe she had a boyfriend…

Or maybe she was married. His red eyes slowly looked down at her fingers, there was no ring, except for a small silver one with a flower on it. It certainly didn't look like an engagement ring.

"Anzu?"

"E-eh?" She looked up, startled. He smiled at her, it was not a real smile but it was he could do right now. This had not been a good idea, after all.

"This is awkward."

Her cheeks turned red and she blinked a couple of times, clearing her throat. "N-no, I'm just thinking. Sorry that I'm quiet."

"What's on your mind, then?" Yami leaned forward and hesitantly placed his hand on hers. Soon, she had wrapped her fingers around his and squeezed. A small smile was on her lips and she looked away, closing her eyes while doing so.

Yami waited patiently for her to start talking, he could practically hear her inner voice scolding her. She looked guilty and nervous at the same time, she knew she was making him feel awkward and she felt guilty about it.

"When you called," she started softly. "I thought you were gonna tell me that you were getting married, or something. I tried to sound really excited and when you told me I had to guess, I could swear you were going to confirm it." Yami's eyes widened slightly, his mouth fell open just a bit and he almost laughed.

She sounded so relieved. She squeezed his hand again and turned to him, her eyes were glassy and a two tears rolled down her flushed cheeks.

"Or do you have a girlfriend and right now you're planning on asking her?"

The sight broke Yami's heart, but it made his heart also beat faster. It was horrible to see her like this, but at the same time, she was hoping he was going to tell her that he did not have a girlfriend, which made his heart flutter. Yami gave himself a small push and the words immediately blurted out. The words he had kept inside of him for _years, _the words he could not get past his lips.

"Do you want to go out with me, Anzu?"

She let out, what sounded like, a startled squeak and she lowered her head, covering the back of her head. Her shoulders were shaking and for a moment, Yami feared the worst and thought she was sobbing, but she was not. She raised her head and he saw that she was laughing insanely. She leaned back against the chair, covering her lips with the back of her hand, her fingers were curled up and tears of joy were streaming down her cheeks.

Yami was not sure if he should be happy or really sad. Maybe she was not taking him seriously and had his instincts misled him. She probably still saw him as a really close friend, nothing more, nothing less.

"You're kidding, right?" she said when she had calmed down. Yami was about to nod and force a laugh out of his mouth, too, but he decided not to lie. He took a deep breath and shook his head. The smile fell from her face in less than a second, she leaned forward and asked him if he could repeat the question.

"… Do you want to go out with me?"

The new smile on her lips almost broke her face, if it would grow bigger, it would probably split her face in two. She stood up, walked around the table and gave him a small kiss on his cheek.

"I thought you'd never ask, Yami."

* * *

The lists of names were scattered all over the desk now, Jounouchi's hair was one big mess because he had run his fingers through his hair at least twenty times. Yugi's hair was probably the same, he did not know, he turned his wrist around to look at his watch on the back of it.

"… We've been sitting here for three hours, already," he mumbled. Jounouchi, who had been using his arms as a pillow, raised his head and gave him a weary look.

"Eh, really? And there's still," he picked up the remaining list and tapped his fingers on it to count them. "ten people left. Ah, we'll finish it and call them tomorrow." Yugi gave him a fatigued smile and nodded, shoving his chair closer to his friend so they could write things down and whatnot.

They had crossed out most of the names already, they would have to call those tomorrow to tell them the bad news. Some of those names had a little circle drawn around them (Yugi and Jounouchi came to the conclusion that those had a big fat chance of getting in), some had a question mark right next to them (they would still discuss those) others were left untouched.

Tomorrow, they would call everyone to either tell them the good or the bad news, Jounouchi had already agreed to do the dirty job while Yugi would call the others to ask them if they were free tomorrow.

"I can't even read this one, I'm guessing you wrote it."

"It's not nice to assume that, bud," Jounouchi grumbled, pushing Yugi's arm aside so he could read it. His eyes lit up immediately. "Ah! That's Mai. In all seriousness, Yugi, I think we should pick her."

_Oh. _Yugi tipped his head to one side, squinting as he remembered the blonde woman singing on that stage. He pressed his moist lips together, digging his front teeth in the soft flesh, he was not sure about her if he had to be honest. Sure, she was good, even great, but she did not have that kind of thing he was looking for.

"Come on, she was amazing," Jounouchi urged. Yugi shook his head and placed his elbow on the table, letting his cheek rest in the palm of his hand. He gave his friend a look.

"I want you to give me your honest opinion about her voice, not her looks. Push that image out of your head and replay her voice, what's the first thing that pops up?" Jounouchi looked at the ceiling as he did what Yugi had told him to do, he was silent for a few moments, moving his hands along with the beat of the song she had sung.

Yugi smiled at the small thing, Jounouchi could instantly replay a song in his head and hear the beat of it. It had been one of the first reasons Yugi had wanted to start a band with him, he loved music more than anything, just like Jounouchi, and Otogi came into the picture a few days later. It was really too bad he had to leave.

"No emotion," Jounouchi finally stated softly, slightly disappointed. Yugi's lips curled into a smile.

"Exactly."

"I'm sure she's willing to learn to sing like we want her to."

"Maybe," Yugi sighed and turned back to the list, drawing a small circle around Mai's name, he discusses the other names with Jounouchi, a silence fell around them quite a few times as they replayed the songs in their head over and over again. They compared a lot of them and ended up crossing out _a lot _of names.

"One left," Jounouchi stated hoarsely, he was getting really tired. Yugi rubbed his eyes and let them drift off to the last name on the list. They had forgotten about one name, it was between all the crossed out names and had a small star drawn next to it. "… A star?"

Yugi felt excitement running through him with the speed of light. "Yami."

"_Ah_." Jounouchi smirked triumphantly, giving Yugi a look. "He was amazing, wasn't he?"

"Yeah," Yugi breathed dreamily. Jounouchi rotated his chair around so they were facing each other. He took the list and folded his arms over his chest, holding it out of Yugi's reach.

"All right. So, what makes this guy so special?"

"His voice, his attitude, the fact the he wrote his own song and I'm sure that if it weren't for us, he would have started crying right there." Yugi pointed at the stage where the guy had stood a few hours ago. "He was a totally different person when he started singing. I don't think he realizes what kind of talent he has."

"I think you found your new idol," Jounouchi teased. "But I do agree with you. I felt his pain, not one of the candidates was able to put that kind of emotion in their song. A true musician. Though, I think we should give Mai a chance as well."

"Of course, she still on the list, isn't she? Well, it's been a long day, let's get back to the hotel. We'll call them first thing in the morning." They started cleaning everything up and walked out. They waved their goodbyes to the cleaners and quickly left when Yugi saw one of those cleaners following them around. Jounouchi's car was parked around the corner and they climbed in before the cleaner could do anything. Jounouchi put his keys in and started driving towards their hotel.

Yugi had fallen asleep after a few minutes, his mind was still on those names. He could not wait to call them and let them know that they had a chance that would change their lives forever.

* * *

**Author's note: **Anzu did actually say, "Oh my god" and hugged Yami around his neck (when he fainted, but it still counts) in the manga once, so it's totally IC. *shot dead*

Ironically, when I had finished the first chapter, I'd written my own song and asked my friend for her opinion.

… Here's the thing; she _loved_ it. Said that it was amazing and that she was so jealous of me. That smile on her face was incredible, oh my god. *-* *explodes*  
So yeah, I'm floating on a cloud right now~, so happeeeh~. Maybe I'll be able to become a musician after all.

Please tell me if the Revolutionshipping is too much to handle (I don't really mind, though xD), then I will just change the plot a little.

I hope I got rid of all the mistakes in this chapter, my English tends to be all over the place when I'm writing. Forever pouting.

Anyway, before I start blabbering, please review and let me know what you think. x3


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note: ***sweatdrop* Yeah, I knew that the Revolutionshipping was gonna be a problem, but like I said, it's just a small part of the plot, bear with me, please~?

I still thank thee for the lovely reviews, they encourage me to write more. x3

* * *

It had been a little over a week since Yami had auditioned and he was starting to feel nervous. Maybe some other guy had auditioned and had convinced them to pick him as their lead guitarist; meaning they had not bothered to call him because he was not important, anymore. It was one of those days again, Yami worked at one of the finest restaurants in Domino as a waiter.

Five days a week, 10am to 5pm, he was lucky those auditions had been held on a Saturday.

He absently cleaned the table of the couple that had left a few minutes ago, they had given him a great tip, which he appreciated. He could use the money, he was not one of the wealthiest people around, quite the opposite. If he was going to be honest, he also wanted to become a musician to have a steady income, or at least, earn enough so he wouldn't have to worry about it for the rest of his life anymore.

Anzu had become very rich over the years, her father's company became one of the biggest in the countries and of course, she received a huge amount of money working at that company. The day he had asked her out was a great day, they went to see a movie and he had hesitantly put his arm around her shoulder to pull her closer.

The moment her head fitted into his neck, he got this nasty feeling in the pit of his stomach. Something was odd, the way her fingers played with his own did not feel right. He had guessed it was because he was still so excited about auditions _and _knowing she had feelings for him, too. Afterwards, Yami brought her back to her cousin's house and the conversation had been very awkward.

Anzu had thanked him, told him she had lots of fun and reminded him of how much she had missed him. Yami said he felt the same, and had leaned forward a bit. Her sky blue eyes had widened just a bit and for the briefest moment, their lips had touched and he had saluted her with two fingers right afterwards.

Now that he thought about it, he had not expected his first kiss to be like that, even if it did sound corny, he thought his first kiss was going to be something he would always remember. But this was something he could barely remember, her lips had felt like delicate flower petals, and that was the only thing he could remember about it.

There had been no spark, no warm feeling in his chest, not even a single butterfly in his stomach.

And it still bothered him to no end. They had only talked on the phone, he had been too busy to go out with her again, she had suggested seeing each other on Friday again and he had agreed. She would come over to his apartment just to hang out (Yami had already cleaned up his living room, and his own room just in case) and he would hope for the best.

He was so lost in thought that the shrieking of his boss' voice made him jump at least two feet into the air.

"_Tanaka!_"

"Yes?"

"You've been cleaning that table for more than ten minutes, I think it's clean!"

"Yes, Ishtar-san," he grumbled, folding the cloth in his hand and walking back to the kitchen. Malik Ishtar watched him as he walked out again with new plates and chopsticks. Yami merely ignored him and continued to set the table for the new customers. His fellow colleagues walked around as more customers entered the restaurant, they were nearing dinnertime and people were streaming in like water.

After just an hour, Yami was already exhausted; he was practically running back and forth between the kitchen and the tables. The chef kept yelling at the waiters to pick up his dishes and the waiters would just yell their new orders back. Malik watched everything with his sharp lavender eyes and Yami did his best not to stand out between the other waiters.

If he would not get that call, he had to make sure he would not get fired, it was not easy to get a job if you had not finished university. Yami had cursed himself for it several months after he had quit university, but studying was definitely not his thing. He had to force himself out of bed everyday and he absolutely hated to write all those essays and other kind of homework. Most of the time, he ended up writing new songs on his guitar, or looking up new songs to play.

_You said you wouldn't let me in your life again _

_All of it was just a lie _

_Because then you looked me in the eye _

_I know I hurt you, please give me one more chance…_

Yami's eyes darted around when he heard that music. This song was his personal favorite, it was one of Heavenly Hell's latest songs. But his boss probably hated this kind of music so why would he use it as background music in his own restaurant?

To his horror, he realized that the music was coming from his pocket, phones were prohibited during his shift and he quickly looked at Malik, but he was too busy scolding another waiter for dropping one of the expensive plates. Yami sneaked off to the restroom and reached underneath his white apron that was tied around his waist for his pocket.

He looked at the bright screen and saw a number he didn't recognize, someone had probably called him by accident. He stared at his phone until the caller gave up and stopped waiting for him to pick up. Pressing his lips together, he put the phone back in his pocket and headed for the door, but was interrupted by the stubborn caller again. He grumbled at looked at the screen, the same number appeared and he rolled his eyes.

Malik could walk in any moment and this job was far more important than some random person who was not able to dial the right number. He quickly turned off his phone and pushed the door open, the loud voices of the customers bombarding his ears.

* * *

Groaning, Yami rolled over to his side to stare at the blurry phone on his nightstand. With his poor sight he could still see the vibrating device heading for the edge of his nightstand, if he was not going to pick up, he should at least try to save it from hitting the wooden floor. Right next to his phone was his alarm clock. The glowing red digits told him that it was around 8 in the morning. The caller (he could officially dub it as his stalker now) had not stopped calling him since that day at the restaurant. He had to change the ringtone because his favorite song was no longer his _favorite_.

The corner of his lip twitched and so did his eyebrow, he squeezed his pillow before he finally made up his mind.

"Fine!" His body shot up, his blanket flew up in the air and ended up on the floor. He practically threw himself at his phone, half of his body almost ending up on the floor, and pressed the green button. "_What?_"

The word came out as a very low, dangerous growl that would have sent shivers up to one's arm. It was silent on the other side for a moment before a quiet voice spoke,

"…Is this Yami Tanaka?"

"Yes, what do you want?" Yami said through gritted teeth. He was sure that it was some kind of prank, and the prankster must have had a lot of patience. With a small huff, he pushed himself up so he could lie back down again.

The other fell silent for a few seconds again, probably scared because he knew Yami was pissed at him. Yami laid his head back down on the pillows and stared up at the blurry ceiling, rubbing the excess sleep out of his eye. He needed to put in his contacts, he could not even make out the creaks in the ceiling.

"Great, I thought you had given me the wrong number because you kept ignoring my calls. This is Yugi Mutou."

Yami could have sworn his heart skipped a beat and (even though he did not want to admit it) that his face was now the color of a tomato. His free hand flew to his head, he slapped his forehead and covered his eyes. He had to keep himself from punching the nearest wall. He felt so _incredibly_ stupid for not realizing it sooner.

After balling his fist until his knuckles turned white and his hand was shaking, he spoke again, "_You've_ been calling me for the past few days?"

"Yes, I had to get a hold of you. I'm sorry I didn't call you sooner, but some things came up so I wasn't able to call the participants. I'm really glad you finally picked up, this was my last attempt." Yugi sounded very calm and patient, as if Yami had not yelled at him a few seconds ago. Or, he was merely pretending to be calm and gentle. Yami was sure that not all famous people would allow their fans to talk to them like _that_.

"Yugi, I'm very sorry for snapping at you. I-I thought you were someone else." He heard Yugi chuckling softly in his ear and he could not help but smile, too.

"It's fine, did you think it was some kind of prank, or something?"

"Yeah, something like that," Yami muttered, rubbing his cheeks to get rid of the redness that was still there. His voice had grown quiet and hoarse, he had woken up just a few minutes after all, and he was definitely not a morning person.

"Anyway, I called you back, like I promised, because I have some good news for you. We had a hard time deciding on whom we wanted to see again and you're one of them. I know this is very, very last minute, but would it be possible for you to come to the auditorium today?"

Yami was smiling all the way until Yugi said the last couple of words. Today was Friday; he had to be at the restaurant in an hour or so. He turned over in his bed, brushing his blond bangs out of his face absently, his eyes looking around the blurry room as if he was going to find the answer written somewhere on the wall.

"Eh… I work today." He heard some shuffling and he pressed his dry lips together until they formed a thin line on his face.

"You have a job?" This time, Yugi sounded kind of suspicious and Yami was afraid that Yugi did not believe him and he was trying to come up with some stupid excuse. But who would turn this kind of opportunity down?

"I work at a restaurant in Domino. I never finished college and I need money to pay the rent, so…" Yami drifted off, his voice shook and he rolled his eyes at himself. He should not be nervous, Yugi was just a person like he was, a normal human being. It was a bit weird to be on the phone with him, but he quickly brushed it off, it was perfectly normal and he should not make a big deal out of it.

"Ah. For a minute I feared that you had forgotten about us and that you were no longer interested in becoming a musician. I guess I was wrong, that's a good thing. Can't you just call your boss and ask for a day off? I'm sure he won't mind."

Yami felt relief washing over him like a nice hot shower, he let out a small sigh and hummed in thought to buy some time. He knew that it was pointless to call Malik and ask for a day off. His restaurant was one of the best in Domino, it was packed almost everyday, even though there were about twenty waiters, it was almost impossible to have a good day. He remembered when one of the waiters called in sick and that it was _hell _that day.

"I already know that it's not going to happen, my boss never allows anyone to take the day off. It's one of the most popular restaurants in Domino and they need me, otherwise they'll be eaten alive by the customers."

"Wow. What's the name of that restaurant?"

"Kokusai," Yami said, raising an eyebrow, wondering why Yugi would want to know that.

"When does your shift start?"

"… 10am. And I work till 5pm."

"Ah, okay, perfect. See you there at 10, then. Be sure to bring your guitar!"

Yami's eyes widened and he stared at his phone, wondering if his ears had stopped functioning. He then quickly put it back against his ear and said, "_Eh? _What do you mean?"

_Beep. Beep. Beep. _

Yami hung up and stared at his phone, dumbfounded. He blinked at sat up, rubbing his eyes again, they itched with sleepiness. He blindly reached for his square shaped glasses and put them on, eyeing Amaya who was curled up right next to his feet at the end of the bed. He stroked her fur for a minute before he shook his head and got out of bed to start his morning routine.

After he had had some breakfast and put on a pair of jeans and white shirt, he started tuning his guitar. He had not touched his guitar in a few days, and he could definitely hear that; some of the strings were totally out of tune. Amaya was sitting in his lap during the tuning, pawing at the wood of the guitar, Yami was sure to keep an eye on her, she had scratched at his guitar once and his wallet had ached for a couple of weeks afterwards.

When he was done, he got rid of his glasses and put in his contacts so he could leave. His guitar ended up in its black case and was attached to his back when he left his apartment.

The ride to the restaurant seemed to take forever, he kept looking at his watch to make sure he would be there on time. And most importantly, not miss Yugi. A lot of people in the bus stared at his guitar, one woman even approached him and asked him what kind of songs he played; they had talked for a while until she left. She had long blonde hair and huge violet eyes and gave him a playful wink when she got out of the bus, Yami had given her a charming smile in return.

Think of Anzu, think of Anzu, he told himself. Anzu did appear in his head, but it didn't help one bit. He would never see that woman again, anyway.

The name of his stop came into view in the distance so Yami made his way to the doors and held his finger above the red button to open the doors. Curiously looking around the area, he tried to to spot something abnormal, like a limousine, he turned a few times on the spot.

"I probably look like an idiot," he lamely told himself after a few seconds. He shook his head and started walking towards the restaurant, noticing the familiar car of his boss that was always parked right in front of said restaurant. Looking over his shoulder one more time, he walked through the doors, mentally preparing himself to talk to his boss. He was not in the mood to get yelled at, at all.

"Ishtar-san?"

Malik appeared in front of him with his arms folded over his chest, they eyed each other slowly and carefully before his boss broke the silence,

"Why did you bring your guitar? Trying to impress someone?" He grinned teasingly and chuckled to himself. Yami mentally noted that Malik was in a good mood, that was good, he could use that to his advantage.

"Well, I actually brought it because—"

"Excuse me." Both of them looked at the door, a stranger was standing there, said stranger's face was hidden behind a large scarf and an abnormally large hat was covering his head. Only his eyes were visible, but the large hat overshadowed them. Yami frowned, they were nearing the summer, it was way too hot to wear a hat and a scarf.

"Ah, a customer. Yami, go get dressed and—"

"I'm not a customer," the stranger interrupted again. He walked up to Yami and raised his head, a bright pair of eyes kindly looked at him and Yami almost lost his balance.

"_Yugi_." He was just a bit shorter than Yami and was much, much paler in person. Yami had not exactly gotten a good look at him the first time, there had been at least 60 feet between them.

"Friend of yours?" Malik asked, raising an eyebrow. Yami had expected Malik not to know about Heavenly Hell, he was not into bands, at all.

"I'm Yugi Mutou." Yugi lowered the scarf to show his entire face and Malik's eyes widened. He started sputtering and pulling at his clothes, it took Yami a lot of willpower not to burst out laughing at the sight. Apparently Malik _did_ know him.

"What… But how—It _is_ you!" Malik rubbed his eyes and stared at Yugi like there was no tomorrow, his eyes were still wide and his mouth hung open. "Eh… I'm Malik Ishtar." Yugi gave Yami an awkward smile and made a quick bow.

"Nice to meet you. I don't know if Yami has explained everything yet, but there were auditions to join our band last week and Yami visited the auditorium and played a song for us. He has a good chance of getting in, he's really talented and I came here to ask you if I could borrow him today. You see, we still have a lot of work to do, and who knows, maybe you'll be able to tell people that you knew him before he got famous."

The smooth words had flowed out of his mouth like a simple breeze and Yami felt his nose reddening. Yugi had said that he, Yami Tanaka, was really talented, he let out a small chuckle before clearing his throat to cover his small laugh up. Yugi winked at him and gave Malik an expecting smile.

"Well… Someone already called in sick today and Friday is certainly not a good day to be short on employees," Malik said, after he had taken his eyes off of Yugi and turned back to Yami. "I didn't know you were that good, Yami."

Clearing his throat again, Yami rubbed the back of his neck, feeling the straps of his guitar brushing against his arm.

"My apologies for not informing you sooner, Ishtar-san, there were some difficulties. It'd be great if I could take him with me. I could tell my manager about this fine restaurant and we can have dinner here sometime."

The sound that came out of Malik's mouth was something that Yami should not have heard. It was a mistake to think that he was not a fan, Yami could see his hands shaking against his sides, probably trying to keep himself from jumping Yugi. Having someone like him eating here was not something you would see everyday, Yami knew Yugi had already won.

"A-All right, take him with you. I'm honored that you'd like to have dinner here. I'll give you my card."

* * *

"That went better than I'd expected." Yami glanced at Yugi, who had taken off the scarf and the hat. They were sitting in a rather old car, not the limousine Yami had expected but then again, Yugi probably didn't want draw any attention from the fans in Domino, which was understandable.

"I didn't know he was a fan, sorry," Yami said lamely, trying to keep his eyes on the road. They were sitting in the backseat and Yugi's chauffeur was driving, there was a small glass between them so their conversation was private. Like he had seen, Yugi was much paler in person, and his eyes were not as dark as they appeared on television, but that didn't mean he didn't look good.

Yugi let out a small laugh and waved him off. "That's okay, Yami. Oh, wait, I forgot to ask, is it okay if I call you Yami?" He looked at Yami with a small smile and Yami felt like he was not even there. He was probably still asleep and Amaya was sitting on his alarm clock, preventing him from waking up.

"Of course."

"Good, and you can call me Yugi. Mouto-san makes me feel so old," he said dryly.

"As if you're old," Yami said with a hint of playfulness in his voice. Yugi grinned at him and Yami truly loved how he could keep up a good conversation with another person. Arrogance was definitely nowhere to find in his posture, or his words, he was… _normal_.

"All right. It'll take a while to get there, so I wanted to ask you a few questions." Yami's body stiffened and he squeezed the fabric of his pants, which Yugi noticed. "Don't worry, this won't ruin your chances of getting in. I just want to know a few things about you. If you have any performing experience and stuff like that."

Yami nodded and relaxed again, his heartbeat had fastened for a bit. He had not realized how badly he wanted this in the first place. He just thought that his only chance of becoming a musician was gone, but luckily, that was not the case.

"Ever performed in front of an audience?" Yugi put his elbow on the little table between them and leaned towards him with a kind smile. Yami's hands felt clammy against his pants, he quickly rubbed it off and started digging in his head.

"Well, I did join the school musical twice," he said quietly. The performances had not been in front of a huge audience, maybe 100 people per performance and that was about it.

Yugi nodded, his smile widening. "That's great, which musicals and which parts did you get?" Yami did his best to keep the memories of rehearsals from taking over his mind, it was back in high school and the only leftover memories he had were memories of Anzu and he did not want to go there right now.

"Cinderella, I was the prince and West Side Story, Tony." Yugi lowered his head, this time his smile was so big that Yami could see his straight teeth.

"Looks like you're quite a good performer, then. So you dance and act, too?"

"Dancing and acting are hobbies. My main priorities are singing and playing the guitar."

"Are you self-taught, or…?

"Never had any singing lessons, but I did have a musician as teacher for the guitar and drums."

This went on for a few minutes until they reached their destination. Yugi didn't take any notes, he was merely listening to Yami's stories and every now and then gave his opinion on things, which Yami appreciated. The chauffeur knocked on the glass and Yugi nodded at him, beckoning Yami to get out of the car.

Last time Yami was standing in front of the deserted building was roughly a week ago and it had been so different. He had no idea he would be back, and with none other than Yugi by his side to take him there. He squeezed the straps and followed Yugi inside, the murmuring of several voices making its way to his ears.

He was not the only one.

Yugi made his way to the auditorium and pushed the doors open, Yami felt his heart drop down his navel.

At least thirty people were standing on that stage, holding their guitars and talking to each other peacefully, acting as if this was just a place to hang out. Yami was absolutely sure that everyone secretly despised each other, they all had that look in their eyes that clearly said, "Back off, you don't belong here."

"These are the ones that have a chance of making it," Yugi suddenly spoke, making Yami jump up. "It's easy to blend in, you all have a lot in common. Maybe you'll even make some new friends." Yugi gave him a small push towards the stage and started climbing the stairs. Yami looked up and saw Jounouchi sitting there, watching the people on stage carefully with a slight dreamy look on his face.

Yami took a deep breath and climbed the few steps, ending up on stage. Some of the participants looked up and smiled at him, others only gave him a nod, and the rest glared daggers at him.

'Yes, very easy to blend in,' Yami thought dryly. He looked up and saw Yugi and Jounouchi talking to each other, pointing at a few notes on the small desk.

"All right, everyone, the last participant has finally arrived. Sorry for the delay." Everyone's head turned towards Yami and all of a sudden, Yami found the smooth surface on the stage very interesting. Luckily, Yugi started talking again and everyone turned back to him. "There are thirty of you, which is perfect. We made fifteen pairs and we picked them very carefully; all these pairs have something very important in common and these two people are going to battle each other. If you hear your names, you may step forward with your partner, we will give you your song, could be any song, doesn't have to be one of our songs, and you can go to any room in this building to practice that song. We made sure that each pair has a song that matches both of their voices, so there's no need to worry about that.

"We will give you the sheet music and you have three hours to prepare that song with your partner. You have to work together to turn it into a good-looking performance, we will walk around and help you if needed, but you are expected to do everything on your own. Make sure that you either sing together or simply split the song in two, it has to be fair obviously. You have _one_ chance to make it work, if you ruin it, then we will send both participants home.

"We will pick one of the two and he or she will have to prepare a new song on their own for tomorrow night. We know that this is asking a lot, but we know you guys can do it, all of you are very talented and are standing here today for a reason."

Yugi's kindness had melted away and had made way for a rather strict teacher attitude. Everyone's eyes had grown wide at this, including Yami's. He had never done a thing like that before, it usually took him a few days to learn a new song. And to be paired up with some stranger was not exactly a nice thought, most people had given him dirty looks.

Yugi had started calling out the names already, Yami watched every single person leave the room, most of them were fine with their partner, so maybe he would be, too. There were four people left on the stage, a rather tall guy with brown hair and brown eyes, he did not have a friendly look in his eyes and right next to him was another guy that looked a lot like him, maybe they were family.

His eyes drifted off to the last participant and he tipped his head to one side. It was a woman, he had certainly not expected that. Her hair was long and blonde, her eyes were violet and her full lips were painted bright red. Yami blinked, it was the woman who had talked to him in the bus that morning.

The two guys left and Yami was left behind with her.

"Mai Kujaku and Yami Tanaka." The woman called Mai looked at him, narrowing her eyes. Yami mentally rolled his eyes, another person in the room that didn't like him, just what he needed. Yami climbed the stairs to pick up their sheet music and gave it to Mai, who snatched it out of his grip. After Yugi had wished them luck, they left the auditorium and looked around for an empty room.

"Maybe upstairs," Yami mumbled, heading for the stairs.

"Whatever." Mai walked past him and Yami noticed how short her skirt was, and how tight her shirt was, showing off her slim upper body. If her voice was not good enough, her clothes would probably do the trick. When they reached the second floor, Mai suddenly turned around to face him. She was a completely different person that he had seen in the bus, she had looked so friendly, and now she looked at him like she was going to murder him.

"Listen up, I'm here to win and you are not going to take that away from me. I don't care who you are or how good you are, I know I'm better than you. I don't like any of the participants, so it's nothing personal. Now let's get this over with." She looked around for a room and ended up at an abandoned lounge area.

"Yugi was right. I'm sure this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship," Yami mumbled to himself before he followed her inside and closed the door.

* * *

**Author's note: **Apparently superstars really dress up like that when they go out in public, my friend's a witness. She saw Justin Bieber in her shop a few weeks ago and she told me that he was wearing this really big scarf and a weird hat, she could only see his eyes and she didn't recognize him at first. Yeah, apparently Justin Bieber was here. Lol, I had no idea. xD

I couldn't make it too easy for Yami to get in, right? That would be BORING. And what Yugi is asking them to do, is not impossible. Trust me, it's not. Perfectly normal~. 8D

But yeah, hope this chapter made a few things clear. Yami and Yugi quality time~, well, sort of. x3

Oh, and I don't own Kokusai, a lovely Japanese restaurant. It's one of the best restaurants in the country. *sparkle eyes*

Please review~!


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note: **Thanks for the lovely feedback, lovely people. x3

This fic is so much fun to write, I just can't stop. *-*  
Oh, and there are lots of Puzzleshipping hints in this chapter. Just couldn't help myself. *cheeky grin*

* * *

_10: 45 - Three hours before the performance_

"Ever given any concerts?"

"Nope. Except for musicals, three solos."

"Ever had any professional vocal lessons?"

"No."

"Ever done any professional vocal _exercises_?"

"…No."

Mai's jaw dropped to the ground. She had been asking these questions for about five minutes, they had not even looked at the song yet. Yami was sitting on the ground, giving her a look while leaning on the balls of his hands.

"How are you even—? Okay, never mind, I don't see why they would pick you if you don't have _any_ experience whatsoever," she muttered, shaking her head, her blonde hair flying all over the place. Yami huffed, he was truly trying to resist the urge to give her a piece of his mind, but his mother had always told him that a guy should never hit a woman.

"Vocal exercises are very important, you have to prepare your voice for singing otherwise it's going to break after a few minutes. We really don't have time for that."

Yami rose to his feet with his guitar, struck a chord and took a deep breath before he sang over the notes. Then, he struck another chord, hitting the strings one by one and singing along. Tapping his foot along the beat he had just created, he kept playing different chords, the notes going higher and higher, until his voice finally did that little jump and the highest note he had ever reached, came out. It had taken him years to get to that point and he was not afraid to show it.

"You mean _those_ kind of exercises?"

For the second time in just a few minutes, Mai's jaw dropped again. Her face grew bright red and Yami smirked, his lips parting, making way for his straight white teeth.

"Fine, so you _can_ sing. We don't have time for this anyway, go get warmed up and I'll split the lyrics."

"Sure thing." He went to the corner of the huge room, sat on the couch and started readying his voice. It felt weird doing it in front of someone else, normally it was just him alone in his room, making weird faces and singing the same notes over and over again. He had read a lot about vocal exercises, but to afford another teacher for that was way too expensive, so he figured he could do it all by himself. There were also a lot of breathing exercises to expand your vocal range and he decided that he would do that later, too.

He kept his eyes on Mai, she was writing things on the sheet music, marking words and drawing circles around them. She played a few of the notes every now and then, humming along and mumbling things to herself, such as,

"Ah, right," and, "Oh, so that's how it is."

A few minutes later, she grabbed her phone and looked up the song so she could listen to it.

Yami knew the whole attitude was a total fake, he'd recognize that anywhere. It was the kind of attitude you needed for these kinds of competitions, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. So he believed that somewhere, hidden underneath that mask, there was that nice, flirtatious woman he had met in the bus.

All of a sudden, the door opened and Yugi walked in with a cheeky grin on his face. He had turned back into the kind and gentle Yugi, Yami thought defiantly.

"Everything all right in here?"

Yami glanced over at Mai, who was still listening to the song with her, she could not hear anything because of the earphones that were plugged into her ears.

"Teamwork, right?" Yami said dryly with a small grin. Yugi chuckled and looked over his shoulder, giving a nod to someone who was out of Yami's sight. A tall man walked in with a large tray with food and water bottles. As if on cue, Yami's stomach growled softly, he had only had some cereal for breakfast and would love to have a little snack. The man laid the tray on the small table in front of the couch, smiled politely at Yami and walked out of the room again.

"Thought you might be hungry, so here are some snacks and some water." Yugi walked over to Yami and sat down next to him. Their shoulders touched and Yami still could not believe he was sitting this close to his idol. He let out a small breath before he hesitantly leaned forward to grab a chocolate bar.

"What's Mai doing?"

"Listening to the song you gave us."

"And what are you doing?"

"Vocal exercises."

Yugi raised an eyebrow at him, giving him a look. Yami's eyes shifted uncomfortably and he started nibbling on the chocolate, staring at the rest of the food in front of him. Yugi scratched his cheek with his index finger and smiled weakly at him.

"That takes thirty to forty minutes, Yami. You know that, right?" Yami almost choked on the chocolate he just wanted to swallow, he started coughing and felt the tears filling up his eyes. Yugi reached for his back and patted it, reaching for a bottle of water. "Apparently not."

Yami shook his head, taking the water bottle and gulping down a good amount of the liquid that was inside. When he was done and had wiped the tears away from the corner of his eyes, he breathed, "Forty minutes?"

"Yes," Yugi nodded. "If you knew how much time we spend on readying our voices for a concert, you'd probably go crazy." Yami pressed his lips together and looked down at his guitar, tucking on one of the strings.

"All right, done. It's a pretty easy song, but there's one part where you have to—" Mai stopped talking when she saw Yugi. Her violet eyes grew twice their size and she quickly replaced her serious face for a kind looking one. "Yugi. When did you get here?"

Yugi removed his hand from Yami's back and sat up straight, rising to his feet. "A few minutes ago. Do you mind if I take Yami with me to another room to do a real quick warm up?" Yami's eyes almost popped out of his head, he already knew that it was going to be embarrassing. He was an amateur and Yugi was a professional vocalist, who probably knew everything about it and was going to laugh at his silly attempts.

Mai shrugged and nodded, turning back to her phone to listen to the song one more time. Yugi turned back to Yami and held out his hand to help him off the couch.

"You'd better take your water bottle with you." Yami followed him out of the lounge room, into the hall, where one could hear all the muffled chords and murmuring voices of people trying to get the hang of their song. Yugi led him downstairs to a rather big room with a keyboard in it.

"A keyboard…?" Yugi closed the door behind him when Yami had walked in, and walked past him, towards the keyboard. Then, he remembered that Yugi could play many different instruments, including the piano, Yami felt awfully down. Yugi was such a talented person and then there was him, trying to fit in the world of fame with his guitar and his voice. His drumming skills were not that great, anyway.

"Yeah, let's start with something easy. You're probably a countertenor, so I'll play three notes within your vocal range. I want you to sing the melody I play. Ready? Here we go."

It had been fifteen minutes and Yami was already feeling like he could sing all day without having to worry about a sore throat. His vocal range had rapidly increased and he could reach notes that he had never reached before.

Yugi was great at explaining things. He had quickly showed him a couple of his own exercises that he always did before a concert, and also a couple of breathing exercises.

"Okay, one more exercise and then I'm really gonna send you back. You have to take your time. All right, this one has to do with breathing. Place your hands right under your ribs." Yami hesitated for a moment before he followed Yugi's example, placing his hands right under his ribcage. "Now, take a real deep breath and you shall feel your ribcage expanding. Good, did you feel it?"

Yami nodded with a small smile. "Breathe out. And when you do, straighten up and stretch a bit. That way, you'll be unstoppable." He walked over to Yami and placed his hand on Yami's stomach. "Try again. I'll help you a bit."

When Yami tried again, first he breathed in, and then breathed out, he could feel Yugi gently pressing on his stomach and shoulder blades to get him in the right position.

"How did that feel?" Yugi pulled back and patted Yami's shoulder proudly.

"Really good, actually."

"Great, 'cause you'll have to use it for this next thing I'm going to show you. Suck in your cheeks a bit, straighten up and try to sing that little melody I showed you before."

Yami blinked at him, reaching for his cheek with his hand. "Suck in my cheeks?" Yugi nodded at him, he walked over to him and pulled a bit of weird face Yami had seen before. It was what they called the "Fish face" at high school; people often pulled that face when they tried to be funny. It was a little less theatrical than the face the guys used to pull at school, but it still had a hint of hilarity in it.

He tried to do it, too. He sucked in his cheeks a bit and gave Yugi a look to see if he was doing the right thing.

Yugi reached for Yami's face and with both hands, gently pressed down on his cheeks, telling Yami to follow.

"Good, like that. Now open your mouth and purse your lips, as if you're gonna say the first two letters of my name, "_Yu-_gi", yes, good." Yami wanted to jump out of his skin, Yugi was still holding his face, smiling up at him. He was not used to this kind of human contact at all, especially not from another _guy. _

Yugi finally let go of his cheeks and beckoned him to sing the melody, while keeping his face like that. Yami felt like an idiot, but did it nonetheless. His mouth automatically started moving around to articulate and that is where Yugi stopped him.

"Here, I'll help you." Yami stiffened with Yugi used his index fingers on his cheeks, forcing them in place to make Yami unable to move them anymore. "Pretend your mouth is like a small tunnel where the tune has to flow through. Now, try again."

Yami took a deep breath, the one that Yugi taught him and sang the melody, while looking down at Yugi. Miraculously, he could sing the melody perfectly, it flowed out so easily that he could barely believe it himself.

"Told you you could do it," Yugi said when Yami was done with the melody. "Now, go back to Mai and start practicing. When you're in the band, I'll teach you everything there is to know about singing."

As soon as the words had left his mouth, Yami froze. He slowly looked at Yugi, whose cheeks were flushed, the tips of his fingers were on his lips, barely hiding the smile behind them. Yami was sure a car could have hit him and he still would not have noticed it, it was like he had fallen into a surrealistic world where everything was too good to be true. Yugi's eyes rolled up to the ceiling, then to the left, his lips were sucked in and Yami could hear him sigh through his nose.

"You didn't hear that. I'll go look for anyone else who needs my help. Go back to Mai."

It was probably not a good idea to protest, so Yami nodded and left the room to go back to Mai.

* * *

_12:45 – One hour before the performance_

They were starting to get the hang of the song now and even though Mai did have an attitude, she had divided the lyrics fairly. There was just one part that had them worried, a particularly high note that lasted for about fifteen seconds. Mai had not wanted to admit it, but even she had trouble holding that note and so did Yami. She had started acting a little more like a human being because she noticed that her attitude did nothing to Yami, at all. Or so he had guessed.

"This would normally take me a couple of days," Mai said, running a hand through her blonde bangs and then placing her cheek in said hand. "Or at least a couple of hours and we don't have much time left. But one of us has to do it."

An awkward silence fell over them, Mai reached for her purple purse that she had left on the couch and pulled out a large sized wallet. "You're going to flip a coin?"

Mai gave him a look before she pulled out a small coin. "Yes. Unless you have any other ideas?"

Yami sighed and shook his head. "Heads." When he looked back to Mai, she had placed the coin on her thumb and flipped it up with great force. It twisted around in the air for a bit until it reached the floor again, it rolled past Mai's feet, past the table and right under the couch.

"Well, that escalated quickly," Yami muttered. Mai rolled her eyes and was about to bend over, but Yami stopped her. "Wait, I'll do it!"

"Why?" Mai stood up again, placing her hands on her hips in a very motherly way. Then, she looked down at her short skirt and realization was written all over her face. Without complaint she let Yami bend down to reach for the coin. "Oh, honey. Don't tell me you've never seen a girl's butt before. A guy like you should have at least had three girlfriends in his life."

For once in his life, Yami was glad his face was hidden under the couch, his face felt awfully hot. He could not believe how straightforward Mai was, then again, she had been very direct from the start, he should have seen this coming.

"That's got nothing to do with it." He finally found the coin and, being very careful not to let it turn over, he placed his finger on top of it and slid it towards him. He slowly crawled backwards, still covering the coin and looked back up at Mai who was towering over him with a cheeky grin on her face.

"So, you've never had a girlfriend before?"

"As a matter of fact, I have."

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really. I'm dating…" Yami trailed off and his eyes widened. "Right now… _Fuck!_" Mai frowned at him and folded her arms over her chest, silently telling him to spill it. "What time is it?"

"Probably five to one, or something. Why, forgot to feed your dog?"

Yami ignored her and reached for his phone, using the speed dial to call Anzu. He had completely forgotten about their date today, Anzu was supposed to come over at 12, she was probably still waiting for him at the door. The phone beeped in his ear a couple of times before the line went dead.

She had hung up on him. His lips parted just a bit when he pulled the phone back to stare at the bright white screen. He hung his head, knowing his screwed up big time.

"What's wrong?" The phone fell out of his hand and fell to the floor with a loud _thud. _Closing his eyes for a second, he tried to think of something, an excuse, an apology, anything. But his mind was totally blank, the only thing he could really think about was the audition and what Yugi had said to him an hour ago.

"I stood her up," he said almost inaudibly.

Mai snatched the coin out of his hand and made a sound that could be described as a 'girly' growl. "Men. They're all the same. And by the way, sucks to be you." She showed him the coin and for the second time that day, Yami cursed.

They kept practicing, but no matter how many times Yami tried to sing the note, he could not do it. He wanted to call Anzu to tell her that he was sorry and make it up to her, it was all he could think about and the fact that he could not leave this place for her made it even worse. Mai said Yugi would understand, but Yami did not want to take that risk.

Which also made him think. A _real _boyfriend would give up anything to be with his girlfriend, hell, he would probably risk his life for her. But did he really want to miss all of this for Anzu, who would probably never become his real girlfriend in the first place? He didn't know what to think anymore.

Anzu was one of the nicest girls he had ever met, right next to his best friend, Mana. Though, Mana would never become his girlfriend, she was more like a sister to him, and he knew she saw him as an older brother. Their parents had met when they were still toddlers and decided to send them to the same school until they both graduated from high school. They never stopped talking to each other, Yami had even called her a couple of days ago to tell her the great news, along with his mother.

But Anzu… Yami tried to get rid of her face in his mind, he didn't even notice Mai's knee coming closer to his stomach.

Until it was too late.

"Oof!"

"Wake up, sleeping beauty, we have to get on stage in a few seconds!"

Yami rubbed his stomach, growling at her. She hadn't kicked him too hard, but hard enough for him to be out of breath for a couple of seconds. He looked up at the two guys on stage, their skin glistened with sweat and their eyes looked fearfully at Yugi who was whispering something in Jounouchi's ear.

Mai leaned towards Yami so she could also whisper something in his ear. Her sweet perfume brushed against his nostrils, making him feel a bit dizzy; she had put on a bit too much. "Those two were really nervous, don't think they made it."

"You think so?" Yami blinked nervously at her, his shoulders slumped and he froze on the spot when Yugi told them they didn't make it. Yami could almost feel his heart wanting to jump out of his chest and hop out of the building because the poor thing could not take the pressure anymore. His hands were shaking against his guitar and they would have continued if Mai had not grabbed them and squeezed them reassuringly.

Mai had softened up a bit, instead of wanting to burry him alive, she was now actually telling him it was going to be okay in her very own way and Yami liked it, maybe they could become friends after all.

"Next, Yami Tanaka and Mai Kujaku," Yugi announced happily. Yami tried to swallow a big lump that had formed itself in his throat, his mouth felt so dry that he was practically craving for just one tiny drop of water. Mai dragged him towards the stage and patted his cheek to wake him up.

"Showtime, guys. Did everything work out between you two?" Jounouchi said with a big grin of his face, his eyes were focused on Mai who was grinning right back at him.

"Yes, handsome. We just gotta wake Yami up a bit, I think he's dreaming about his girlfriend." As soon as the word 'girlfriend' slipped out of Mai's mouth, Yami completely snapped out of it, he was about to tell her to drop the stupid subject, but he was interrupted by his very own idol.

"Girlfriend?" Yami turned his head _oh so_ slowly to meet Yugi's eyes, a slight shimmer of dullness sparkled for a minute before it left again. A small smile made its way onto his face, Yami had this nagging feeling that Yugi was very good at putting on a fake smile. It reminded him of his own teenage years where he always had to put on a fake smile to make it through the day. "I didn't know you had a girlfriend, Yami."

'And I didn't know this was going to be such a big deal,' a pissed off voice in the back Yami's head muttered darkly. Instead of saying something like that, Yami rubbed the back of his neck and chuckled softly.

"Ah, it's a long story. Let's not talk about this anymore, shall we?" He turned to Mai and narrowed his red eyes to slits. "_Please?_" The word came out as a low growl and luckily, Mai got the hint and struck the first chord. The whole room was silently watching them, Yami only kept his eyes on Yugi's and Jounouchi's, their eyes were watching every move they made and they were also whispering things to each other every now and then.

Mai was really going for it, she was singing louder than before and Yami could almost feel the emotion pouring out of her. Slowly, Yami felt his hope trickling out of him like the salty tears that would probably spill if they send him home today. He decided to just go with the flow, it was a pretty slow song they did not have to scream into the microphone. Yami closed his eyes and focussed on the lyrics, it was a bit of sad song, it was about a guy who was left behind by his own parents because they did not believe in him, but he somehow managed to make it to the top without their help.

He let the lyrics take over his mind, he could actually see himself as that boy, singing those lyrics that came right from his heart. The pain, the anger and yet the happiness in the song because he had done everything on his own and never gave up. They were reaching the high note, and Yami could almost feel Mai's eyes on his and Yami took a deep breath before he reached for the note. He remembered everything Yugi had told him, he pretended that his mouth was a tunnel and he straightened up a bit. His voice made that little jump and the note came out perfectly, he could not even stop himself from doing a small fist pump with one of his hands when he was still singing the note after more than ten seconds.

He opened his eyes, grinning proudly and saw Yugi nodding at him with a big smile. But then he noticed that Mai should have been singing at that point. She was looking down at her guitar, still striking the chords with her nails, but her lips were pressed together. She continued to play and then Yami saw tears sparkling in her eyes behind her blond strands of hair. And then it hit him.

She had forgotten the lyrics. Yami stepped back from the microphone and softly sang her lyrics, praying that it would jog up her memory, she looked up at him and hummed along, smiling sadly. Her defeated eyes told him she already knew she was not going to save herself out of it. The song ended with Yami singing the last part a cappella. Mai was supposed to sing in harmony with him, but again, she was silent and hummed along.

When Yami was done, everyone slowly started clapping for them. A single tear slid down Mai's cheek.

"… I'm sorry," she whispered into the microphone. She avoided everyone's eyes and looked down at her guitar, nervously tucking at the strings. Yami stepped forward and looked at Yugi, their eyes locked and Yami sighed softly.

"She knew all the words backstage and she sounded amazing. She was just nervous." Yugi looked at him for a few seconds before his eyes drifted off to his notes in front of him, he pursed his lips slightly and wrote a couple of things down. Yami gave him a pleading look, not even Mai deserved this; it sucked to see her like that.

"I understand that, Yami," Yugi said quietly, Yami could almost feel the sympathy in his voice. Mai was shaking her head, her eyes were closed and her fist was shaking against her side. "But I think you both already know that we can't take that risk. I think you know the answer for today. Congratulations, Yami. We'll see you tomorrow night. Thank you, Mai."

Mai walked off the stage, her blonde hair was shielding her eyes and Yami quickly jumped off the stage to follow her. The next duo got on stage and started performing right away, singing over Yami's voice that was calling Mai's name. She kept walking until she had to push the door open and closed it behind her. Before she could leave the building, Yami grabbed her arm.

"Mai…"

"Why did you do that?"

She turned to him, she wasn't angry, Yami could tell, she was confused. And so was Yami.

"Did what?" Mai fully turned to him, she was squeezing the strap of her guitar tightly and her painted red lips looked dry. She was nibbling on her lower lip, she looked at him before one corner of her lips tucked upwards.

"Why did you defend me even though you knew it wasn't going to help, at all? I've been a total jerk to you and yet, you say those things about me to change their minds. You were risking everything out there."

Yami's eyes softened and now he was the one to be speechless for a while. His eyes fell on the carpeted ground beneath their feet, he honestly did not know why he did that. He wanted to be there for her, no one deserved that awful feeling of a blackout, especially in a situation like this.

"I didn't want all of this anyway," she suddenly spoke up. Yami blinked at her, she had turned around again with the back of her head facing him. "Singing was just a hobby. I forgot the lyrics because I'm human, I don't even care about the fame or the money. I've got other things to worry about."

She stopped and Yami kept looking at her, not moving an inch. She looked over her shoulder at him. A beautiful smile kissed her lips. "You're really talented, I guess I didn't expect you to reach that high note. You completely blew me away and I was so shocked that I couldn't continue." Her violet eyes softened and she reached out for him, placing her manicured fingers on his shoulder. "I saw the way Yugi looked at you. He's totally in love with you and will definitely do anything to get you through the next round."

"…" Yami made an odd noise, a noise that would be described as a sort of squeak, but a startled gasp at the same time. Though, he would probably never admit that it had sounded like some broken toy that was still trying to sound cute, but failed miserably at it.

"And your girlfriend is a lucky girl, you're a cool guy. Just don't turn into a diva when you get famous, okay?" She waved at him before she left the building, walking into the sunlight outside. Yami watched her until she turned around the corner, the clicking of her high heels dying down after a while.

He looked over his shoulder at the open door. And right there and then, Yugi had looked over his shoulder, too and their eyes met once again. Yugi's violet eyes sparkled happily and he flashed him a proud smile and mouthed, "Good job."

* * *

**Author's note: **Before you ask, a countertenor is a type of a male singing voice. Like, bass, tenor and soprano, that kind of stuff. I don't feel like explaining it. Google it. *shot dead*

So. Am I kicked out of the fandom yet? Because this chapter totally sucked, I know. But at least there's Puzzle hints, which should make up for it. And sorry if there are any grammar mistakes, I think I got rid of them all, but my English has been kind of _meh_ lately. Finals start next week and I'm stressing like crazy, so I can't focus on anything, huuurduuur.

Review?


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's note: **A few things before I casually leave you all to read this chapter:

I graduated high school and have taken a year off to get rid of all the stress. So, updates should be more frequent. I wanted to update all of my fics at once, but I decided that I wanted to update this one today for several reasons. Just so you know, I am working on my other fics. (:

Anyway, here's the new chapter!

* * *

With a heavy sigh, Mana Katsu heaved her suitcase off the huge cart she got at the airport. The driver helped her with her luggage; her suitcase and bag were a lot lighter when she left her house, she thought with a mental pout. It was probably because of the long flight, she had been sitting on that plane for more than 15 hours. And her hang over was not really helping, either.

After they had taken care of her luggage, the driver helped her get in the car with a polite smile and she happily sat down, about to crash any moment. She gave the man the address and stared out of the window with an absent smile.

She could not wait to see her best friend again. Yami had called her a few days ago to tell her the wonderful news about the auditions. The minute he hung up on her, she asked for a few weeks extra off from work for a special occasion. Mana worked at a huge kindergarten back in England where she had been teaching 1st and 2nd graders how to read and write for years. The good thing about working at a kindergarten was the fact that you had a lot of breaks, including summer break, winter break and a lot more. It was one of the best jobs she had ever had, working with little kids was a lot of fun and the best part was that she was great with those kids.

In the beginning she was a little scared because she had to learn the English language, but she managed to speak it fluently after just a few years and now she even noticed that her Japanese had started to get a bit rusty. Her driver had asked her if she needed help and she had something like,

"_Yes, I please can need help_." It was pretty embarrassing, it had been a lot easier with Yami on the phone because he was doing all the talking. Listening and understanding was not that hard, it was the talking part that was becoming harder.

At least Yami's apartment was not too far away, it only took about ten minutes to get there. She paid the driver and got out of the car. He was so nice to help her with her luggage again. He drove away, leaving Mana to stare at the small building in front of her. Yami had certainly not lied to her when he told her his apartment was not that big, Mana knew Yami was pretty modest, but this did look pretty cheap.

She looked at the note in her hand to check if she got the address right, she had already done so at least three times, but because she did not see anyone going in or coming out, she thought it was a deserted place. She dragged her suitcase towards the entrance, along with her bag and looked at the names next to the doorbells.

"Hm… Oh, I wish I would have kept reading those Japanese novels, it's been a while since I saw Japanese letters…" she mumbled to herself. But then she saw a couple of very familiar letters, which spelled out her friend's name. "Yami Tanaka! There we go." She pressed the button eagerly, glancing over at the front door. She waited for a couple of seconds, blinking at the small shiny button. She pressed it again, the skin around her fingernail going yellow because she was pressing it like there was no tomorrow.

"Maybe he's not home…" she said quietly. She could not call him, he did not even know she was here because she had wanted to surprise him. She was about to press the button again when the front door flew open, revealing a rather pretty girl. She had short brown hair, her eyes looked at the pavement, obviously avoiding anyone who wanted eye contact. Her bangs were almost like a curtain for said eyes, so Mana could not even see her eyelashes.

Her shoulders hung, even in that simple yet elegant outfit, which contained a strapless white dress with a huge flower in the left hand corner and some sandals, she looked like she had just got slapped in the face.

"Miss…?" Mana tried softly, reaching out for her. But the woman in front of her moved out of the way with a small "Hmpf" and walked away. Mana looked over her shoulder to watch her until she turned around the corner, pressing her lips together. Then, she quickly turned back to the front door that was still open. She walked inside, dragging her suitcase along and took the elevator to the floor that would lead to Yami's apartment.

She had felt sorry for that woman, but it looked like she did not want to talk to anyone right now. She did look a bit familiar, like an older version of someone she knew. She gripped the straps of her bag, pushing the thought away, she had to focus on other things right now.

_Ding! _

The doors opened, revealing a small hallway with a blue-carpeted floor and white painted walls; there were only a couple of doors. Mana looked around until she saw the right number that she remembered. She smiled and ran over to it, her suitcase almost falling over because of the sudden pull.

Knocking enthusiastically, she waited for a response, standing on the tip of her toes because her feet were really tired and about to collapse. She waited for a while again before she sighed, pressing her forehead against the door.

Apparently Yami was not home right now. She knew she should have called first to make sure something like this would not have happened, but she was too eager to surprise him that she had been too stubborn to do so. Shoving her suitcase against the wall, she sat down on it, burying her face in her arms. Maybe she could have a small nap until he came home.

Mana did remember Yami telling her he worked at a very popular restaurant on weekdays, so he was probably still at work. And because it was such a popular place, he would probably be working late, and Mana would have to wait here for a couple of hours tops.

She was about to doze off until she heard heavy footsteps pounding on the carpeted floor. Her head snapped upwards, hoping that it was Yami who was going to let her sleep on a normal bed instead of her crappy suitcase. She saw a pale adult standing at the end of the hallway, bended over, his hands on his knees and panting like crazy. One of the first things she noticed was the familiar hairstyle she had not seen in years; the crazy mix between black, violet and blond.

Yep, that was definitely Yami. A small grin appeared on her fatigued face and she quickly sneaked off to the nearest corner, leaving her suitcase and bag behind on purpose. They would probably cause Yami to stare at them for a while, giving her enough time to truly surprise him.

She glanced around the corner to see him jogging over to the door, and like she had predicted, he let out a confused noise and stared at the luggage in front of his door.

"_Yami!_" She ran over to him and practically tackled him to the ground. She had wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his shoulders, staring at him right in the face. His startled red eyes stared at her as if she was some kind of weird creature that had appeared out of nowhere. Then, his face relaxed, his eyes softened and he showed her one of those typical smiles that he used to give her when they were still teenagers.

"… Mana. It really is you." She let go of him and nodded quickly, twirling her brown hair around her forefinger.

"I wanted to surprise you. And I guess my plan worked." She grinned from ear to ear and watched him open the door, beckoning her to follow him inside. He grabbed her suitcase and dragged it in, heaving it onto a couch.

Mana took a look around in the apartment, it was awfully clean, it looked like Yami had just cleaned it before she came in. It was not small, but not large either; the walls were a light relaxing yellow color (it reminded Mana a lot of beach colors), and under her boots was a greyish-carpeted floor. They were probably standing in the living room right now; there was a small lounge area with a couple of seats and one couch, a small television was standing in the corner, facing the couch, with a Playstation parked in front of it. There was also a drum kit in one of the corners with the two sticks neatly placed in a box on top of the seat.

Behind her was the kitchen, a cute small area with a stove, a small refrigerator and a dishwasher; a few cupboards and drawers were there to store everything away. And right next to her was another room, probably Yami's bedroom. There was a made bed in the corner, with a nightstand next to it. In the other corner was his guitar stand, along with his glasses. This made Mana blink.

"Wait, why aren't you wearing your glasses?" Yami was already working on a cup of tea in the kitchen when he suddenly looked up at her, raising an eyebrow.

"I got contacts."

Mana's shoulders slumped, a defeated smile on her lips. "Why, though? Those glasses looked really good on you." She walked over to him and watched him prepare the tea in the old fashioned way. He poured water into a teapot and placed it on the stove, turning it on so blue flames emitted from the tiny black holes.

"Because people with glasses are often stereotyped and I didn't want to take that risk when I went to college. People in high school used to steal them all the time and break them before finally giving them back. Getting them fixed every time was rather expensive, but contacts were even more expensive so we couldn't get them. Every time I came home with broken glasses, my parents had to buy me new ones again. When I moved out of the house and got a job, I decided to get contacts to make sure I would not have to pay for new glasses over and over again," Yami explained with a small frown on his face. His eyes shone a bit with hurt at the thought of causing his parents those problems and Mana rubbed his shoulder reassuringly.

"That's not your fault, you know that, right?" Yami chuckled dryly, taking the teapot away from the stove as it started whistling loudly. "Hey, have you been working out?" Mana squeezed his shoulder and also his arm, feeling the muscles beneath her fingers.

"A bit."

He got two cups out of one of the cupboards and poured the hot water into them, adding the tea bags right away. He looked a bit tense, even though he wore that faint, gentle smile on his face for her. She didn't buy it. He took the two cups and placed them on a small table between the couch and a chair. He gently pushed her towards the chair, mumbling something about getting the sugar, milk and some chocolate.

Mana kept looking around; his apartment was truly fascinating. Nothing like she had expected, she had expected it to be more… boy-ish. Posters of his favorite rock stars, dirty laundry everywhere, work out equipment…

He sat down in front of her after he had placed some more sweets in front of her, along with some milk and sugar.

"Eh, Mana…" She looked up expectantly. Finally, he was going to talk about it.

"Hm?"

"Not that I'm not happy to see you because I _really _am. But…" he uneasily grabbed his cup of tea and looked down at it, the steam rising from the cup brushing over his face. Their eyes met and he scrunched up his nose. "You kind of came at a bad time. There were auditions again, and I made it to the next round, but I have to write my own song for tomorrow."

Mana looked at him as if he had just thrown his hot tea in her face. Well, she had certainly not expected _that_. She was really happy for him for making it to the next round, but on the other hand, he was basically saying that she shouldn't have come.

"Oops…" she said lamely, laughing nervously. She looked away, pretending to stare at the drum kit in the corner. She noticed some papers shoved underneath it, probably some of the songs Yami had written. Now that she thought about it, she had never heard him sing, she had heard him play the guitar countless times but he never actually sang in front her.

"It's not your fault, Mana. You can stay here of course, I'll just be tinkling around on my guitar and probably sing off key all the time because I'm trying to find the right key," Yami said dryly in an attempt to brighten the mood. The corner of her lips twitched, her lips curled into a small smile.

"I guess I can go shopping, or something. I need to work on my Japanese anyway."

"Your Japanese is fine."

"It isn't. I totally embarrassed myself in front of my taxi driver when he picked me up."

"That just means you haven't changed at all."

Mana stuck out her tongue at him and he chuckled, raising his free hand in defense. She felt better already; if Yami was joking around it meant that he was in a good mood again, that was very typical of him. From the corner of her eye, she could see him blowing on his cup and carefully taking a sip of the hot liquid. For what felt like the umpteenth time, she admired the organized apartment she was in.

Even though they had been friends their entire life, she could not remember he was _this _neat.

"It's so… _clean _in here." She looked at him, raising an eyebrow as if she had just accused him of something. Yami looked at her for less than a second before he looked away, bringing his cup closer to his face so half of his face was hidden behind it.

She could not believe it. Yami's nose was bright red and he avoided her eyes like she had said something very embarrassing. Her heart started beating faster, maybe he had a very good reason to be this clean.

"Yami?" she said in a very teasing tone. "Is there something you wanna tell me?"

This time, Yami lowered his cup and she could see the rest of his face; his nose was still red and one of his blond bangs hung in front of his eyes. He took a deep breath before he spoke,

"You didn't happen to see Anzu on your way here, did you?"

Both of Mana's eyebrows disappeared under her brown bangs, she had definitely not expected him to avoid the subject. Yami was not like that, he would either get straight to the point or not talk about it, at all (which had really annoyed her when they were younger). She knew that Anzu was the girl Yami used to have a crush on back in high school, a major crush.

She remembered how heartbroken he was when she had left; it had truly destroyed him. He had the same look on his face he had back then; hurt and remorseful.

Then her eyes widened. The girl from before who opened the door for her… Could it have been…? Mana eyed Yami carefully, there was something very wrong here.

"I think I did. I saw a girl with brown hair and a short dress walking out of the building when I got here. Because of her, I was able to get through the front door. She was looking at the pavement, so I didn't get a glimpse of her eyes. She did look very upset."

When she said that, Yami put the cup on his table and brushed his bangs out of his face, sighing deeply. A few colorful words flowed out of his mouth, Mana cringed in her chair, she had never liked it when Yami cursed because when Yami cursed, something was definitely wrong.

Mana got up from her chair, walked around the table and sat on her knees in front of him. Just when she did, a small white kitten walked up to them and jumped onto Yami's lap. Yami ignored her and continued to mumble things under his breath. Mana placed her hand on his knee, stroking his leg with her thumb.

Their eyes met and hers softened when she saw his. "Tell me what happened."

And so he did. Yami told her about his first audition and that he had used one of his own songs (he had already told her about that), but that said song was about Anzu, which was kind of shocking to her. When Yami told her the rest of the story she could understand why he was so tense a few minutes after she had arrived.

When he was done, he started stroking the white kitten in his lap, and in response the small pet licked his fingers lovingly and pawed at his hands.

"This is Amaya by the way," he said matter-of-factly. Mana wanted to burst out laughing for the sudden change of subject, but decided it was best not to. Amaya's green eyes studied Mana skeptically, she let out a small whine and hid away in Yami's jacket. Yami chuckled at this, placing his hand, which was about the same size as Amaya, around his cat, rubbing his thumb against her head. "She's a bit shy."

"I can see where she gets it from," Mana stated quietly, grinning cheekily. Yami shot her a warning, yet playful, glare and lowered his gaze to Amaya again, stroking her back. "Anyway, I think you need to call Anzu and tell her what's going on. For you see, the first date is always awkward so it's okay to screw up a bit, but to forget about the second date is a no-go. It says something about the stability of the relationship between the two partners. If one of them forgets about the second date, it actually means they're not interested enough to continue."

Yami stared at her as if she had just spoken Latin to him. She could not help but laugh at his expression, when it came to girl stuff Yami was truly clueless.

"Oh."

With a small grunt, Mana got up from the floor and plopped down onto the arm the chair he was sitting in. "But I think getting through the next round is on top of the list right now. So go ahead, I'm finally going to hear you sing and there's nothing you can do about it."

* * *

One of the last contestants was sent home and Yugi let his head fall onto the desk in front of him. He had never thought this thing could be so tiring. Scratch that, it was _exhausting. _Mainly because of the fact he really had to pay attention to each note, each chord and each move the contestants made.

"Just one more, one more, one more…" Jounouchi kept mumbling next to him and Yugi laughed softly, it was so very typical of him to pretend he was at some boring school trip.

"Yeah, Yami Tanaka."

"Yep." Jounouchi leaned back in his chair and stretched his muscled arms above his head, letting out a loud grunt. Yugi could tell that he was a bit upset about Mai, but it was probably for the best. Yami was truly better than her and he had remembered the lyrics, unlike her. And the fact that he had tried to help her made Yugi smile. Yami was a really good person and he had quietly sang the lyrics for her had given him a small sign.

If it were up to him, he would have picked Yami right from the beginning. But it was unfair towards the others, and who knew, maybe Yami could not write a song in just one day. They were going to find out in a couple of seconds, Yami was the last one on the list and Yugi could definitely not wait.

Jounouchi let out a long sigh, combing his fingers through his blond bangs like a bored teenager. Mai probably would have kept him awake, Yugi thought ironically. He stared at the door, expecting it to open and Yami to walk in with his guitar, but he never came. The doors stayed closed, even when Yugi had checked the list to make sure there was still one contestant waiting in the hall.

"Probably had a mental breakdown, or something," Jounouchi muttered jokingly. Yugi rolled his eyes and got up from his chair, ignoring his friend's protests to come back and sit down on his ass. Yugi carefully walked down the stairs and opened the door, looking around. He did see a guitar leaning against one of the chairs, he saw a small sentence written in the corner.

He had to learn forward to be able to read it and smiled when he saw one of his very own quotes in, apparently, Yami's handwriting.

"_Don't let anything drag you down, keep believing in yourself and your talents._"

"Yugi?"

Said person jumped up and whirled around to see the owner of the guitar. Yami looked very pale and he had folded his hands together. Yugi's eyes softened, he was probably very nervous and trying to give himself that one last push. At least, that's what Yugi thought until he saw Yami's hands.

_There was blood sticking to the skin. _

"…Yami."

"I'm sorry, I was up all night working on that song and my fingers started bleeding after a while. I put some plasters on them, but when I got here to practice one more time, the wounds spontaneously opened again. I had to go to the bathroom to put some new plasters on. This doesn't mean I won't play the song for you, I will."

Yugi was speechless. Had Yami continued to work on his song until there was blood on his fingers?

"Wow."

"Again, sorry you had to wait. I'm coming in right away." Yami was about to grab his guitar with his bloody fingers, but Yugi grabbed his shoulders, stopping him from doing so.

"Let me look at your hands first, you could get an infection if you keep playing with those fingers." Yami looked at him as if Yugi had said something incredibly stupid and wondered if he was being serious. However, that was not going to stop Yugi from taking a look at his bloody fingers.

"I'm fine."

"No, you're not. Let me see your hands."

"I'm _fine._"

"Come on, I don't want your hands to be permanently injured because you were too stubborn to let me look at them. You're taking a huge risk here and I don't want you to."

For a moment, the two stared at each other. Yugi's glare had hardened and Yami's eyes shone gently, he had also gotten some color back in his face and was no longer frowning at him. He had hidden his hands in his pockets, but carefully removed them and held them in front of Yugi.

His long and slender fingers looked fine but his fingertips were hidden beneath the ten plasters, where small droplets of blood had leaked through the soft fabric. It looked a bit ridiculous, but Yugi remembered that Yami had probably been desperate. He gently took Yami's hands in his own and started peeling off the plasters.

"…" Yami cringed a bit when Yugi removed the plasters from his left fingers. Blood sprung from the wounds and Yugi sighed through his nose, carefully touching the wounds with his fingertips.

"You're crazy."

"Well, gotta chase your dreams, right?"

Both of them chuckled softly at the lame joke and Yugi continued to remove the plasters. When he had removed all of them, he looked up to see that Yami had scrunched up his nose and he was gritting his teeth. He knew how painful these wounds could be so he could not blame Yami for being in a lot of pain right now.

"I'm afraid you're not gonna be able to play for a couple of days."

"_What?_" That wasn't a question, it was a statement. Yami's gaze had dropped and he pulled his hands out of Yugi's grip as if he had burned himself real badly. "But how am I supposed to—"

"Sing it acapella." Yugi watched Yami's body as it slumped forward. It looked like Yami would never do such a thing, but Yugi knew he had no choice if he still wanted to become a band member. Jounouchi would definitely brush it off and say something along the lines of,

"Too bad for 'im." But Yugi knew he could do it and it would be even better if he sang without that guitar so Jounouchi could hear what a wonderful voice he had. Yami's red eyes had become moist, and before Yugi could say something in response, Yami groaned in frustration and punched the cushion that was neatly placed upon one of the chairs.

Singing acapella was definitely risky because the instrument could not cover up any flaws, but Yugi knew it was not impossible. He just had to give it a shot.

"This really sucks," Yami hissed quietly, it sounded more like a whisper, and hurt laced his words.

Right at that moment, the doors behind Yugi opened and Jounouchi stuck his head around the corner.

"Oh, you're here. Great, we've been waiting for you. I was starting to worry you hadn't shown up." Yami gave Yugi a pleading look, his watery eyes silently begging him to give him a few minutes to pull himself together. Yugi quickly waved Jounouchi off with a flick of his wrist and placed a comforting hand on Yami's shoulder.

"You've come this far. I know you have it in you, but if you really don't want to do this, I'll make sure Jounouchi and I will be here waiting for you. It will at least take four or five days for you fingers to fully recover. But Yami," he squeezed his shoulder and Yami looked down at his guitar in the corner. "you don't need your guitar to sound great. Please give it a shot."

"I'll probably mess up."

"Others have messed up, too but they were still great. If you don't shoot, you'll most definitely miss and this is obviously something you don't want to miss. So, go to the bathroom, clean your hands, with cold water this time, and walk through those doors. I'll inform Jounouchi." Yugi gave him a little push around the corner and gave him a thumbs-up when he looked over his shoulder with a worried look.

Just to see if Yami was actually going to do it, he waited until he could hear the water running out of the taps and then walked back to the auditorium with a content smile. Jounouchi was waiting at the doors with his arms folded over his chest, eyeing him carefully, demanding an explanation for this weird situation. After about a minute, Yugi had explained everything and with each word that came out of his mouth, Jounouchi's eyes grew wider.

"Really?" he said after a while. The bathroom door opened and Yugi quickly shoved him inside, nodding his head. When they started climbing the stairs, Yami came in and looked just as nervous as he did on the first day. He had his guitar in one of his hands and for a moment, Yugi thought he was still going to play it, but he carefully laid it on his thighs as he sat down in front of the microphone stand. With a light frown, Yugi studied him and his frown disappeared when Yami started tapping the guitar.

He was creating a beat for himself. And when his lips separated, he started singing. Yugi felt himself leaning over the desk, he truly admired Yami for this and did not want to miss anything. Because his voice was shaking like crazy, he could tell that Yami was even more nervous than the first time. But, like he expected, that melted away after a few seconds; his voice stopped shaking and the true emotions of the song started gliding around the words.

His breathing was a bit out of control, Yugi made a mental note that Jounouchi would probably murmur something about that in his ear any minute.

The song was very original, it was a combination of poetic words and simple sentences. It was a song that would make everyone stood up to listen to it, it was filled with regret and sorrow. Yami tapped the guitar a bit faster and Yugi could easily recognize this as the chorus. He had noticed that not a lot of words rhymed with each other, not that he cared, the lyrics of the song were capturing and mesmerizing enough.

Yami described a situation where he had hurt another person and that he regretted it more than anything. And at that moment, Yugi knew why his breathing was a bit out of control. Yami's eyebrows had furrowed in concentration, his eyes were closed, but if Yugi squinted, he could see that his eyelashes were wet.

He guessed it was because of the song and also because he was so nervous. It only proved how badly he wanted this, he wanted it more than anything in the world. Jounouchi had probably noticed it, too and had a look of disbelief in his eyes. It was very hard to keep your breathing under control if you were on the edge of crying your eyes out.

The person he sang about meant a lot to him, had always been there for him and taught him many things about life. Yami himself had messed up big time, not the other way around like so many thought, and he was more than sorry about it. If he could rewind time, he would spend more time with him, he regretted all the hours he had lost because he had been so careless and acted like a coward. But had it not been for that person, he would not be standing here right now, singing about him and using the feelings for a simple song.

The minute he had been too late had felt like a dagger in his chest. And that dagger was still there, making him bleed even after those six long years. Yami pulled back from the microphone for a moment, letting the words sink in.

The tapping slowed down and this time, he dropped his hands and sang the last parts of the song acapella. He had opened his eyes, but they were focused on his hands, trying to hide his haunting emotions. His voice shook, it shook terribly and yet, he still managed to sound good. He lowered his head even more when Yugi heard him sniffle, but he still continued.

A sung apology came out to finish the song and he pressed his lips together to seal his words.

Yugi slowly looked at Jounouchi who was holding his head in his hands, clearly devastated.

"Ow…" he muttered quietly. Yami looked up and blinked at Jounouchi, who was gripping his hair like a lifeline. The guitarist looked up and shook his bangs out of his face. To Yugi's biggest surprise, he saw the redness around his dark eyes. "That really _hurt_."

Yami was staring at him before he bowed his head and gripped his head. Without even giving it a second thought, Yugi got up from his seat and hopped off the stairs to get to Yami.

Tears were dripping down the tip of his nose and Yugi quickly wrapped his arms around Yami's shoulders. Yami's body froze completely and Yugi started rubbing his back reassuringly, muttering sweet nothings to calm him down. The hot tears were wetting his shirt and he carefully looked up at Jounouchi.

The two band members looked at each other for a moment before one of them nodded.

* * *

"_Crap!_" Yami almost jumped out of his skin when he heard Mana rummaging around in the bathroom. He had been sitting on the couch ever since he came home and Mana had just come back from town. She had decided to take a shower and now Yami was pretty sure she was making a mess of his small bathroom. He was not sure what happened next, but he had absolutely not expected to have to hide his face behind his arms when Mana came running out of the bathroom with nothing but a towel on.

"_Oi!_" Yami yelled, still avoiding his best friend's face. Her hair was wrapped up in another towel and it looked like she had just come out of the shower; small water droplets trickled down her smooth back and ended up on the floor. "I know we're best friends, but this is rather awkward, you know."

"Oh, grow up. Our parents changed our diapers in the same room, I think we even were in the same crib. I'm wearing a towel, I'm not naked, and I honestly don't care right now." She kept walking around, opening every single cupboard, her face was bright red and she looked very nervous. Yami finally found the courage to lower his arms and looked at his best friend. "Oh, I knew I forgot something!"

"What?" Yami was starting to worry. But then he relaxed again, she had probably forgotten her hairbrush, or something. Mana stopped in front of him, clutching the towel in her hands and giving him a pleading look.

"Please tell me you have pads."

"… That I have what? Holy—!" Yami pressed himself against the back of the couch when blood trickled down Mana's leg. It dripped onto the floor and more blood seemed to be running down her legs. "Y-you're hurt! You're bleeding, shit, it's getting all over the floor! I need to call someone, an ambulance, your parents, anyone, I—"

"No! Yami! No, _put the phone down_! Calm down, I just need some pads!" Mana ripped the phone out of his hand and gave him a look; one that probably said Yami was such a moron for not staying calm. What was wrong with Mana? She was bleeding from her…

Suddenly, Yami felt hot. Awfully hot. He looked down once again, it honestly looked like a car crash down there. Even the towel had red patches. "_Oh. _You're on your… Right."

Mana folder her arms over her chest, looking down at her bloody legs. "Yeah. And I forgot to bring my pads. And apparently you don't have them."

"Why would I even have those in the first place?"

"Maybe you have pads for your girlfriend, or your mom, or any other woman that comes in here."

"Well, I don't."

"Go get some for me, then."

Yami snorted, but pulled a straight face when he saw that Mana was obviously not kidding. "You seriously want me to buy some pads?"

"If you don't, I will probably make your apartment look like a crime scene."

"I think you already did that." Yami looked down at the floor, Mana had left a small trail of blood, which led right back to the bathroom. He cringed at it, it looked so creepy and painful. Mana stayed silent while Yami looked at the blood as if it was going to jump him and eat him alive any minute. "Okay, fine, I'll do it."

He quickly grabbed his bag and dashed out of the apartment, hearing a faint "Thank you!" from Mana in the background. He took the elevator to the first floor and went to look for his car. He barely used his car these days because town was not very far away and he usually walked or used the bus to get there. But now that Mana was waiting for him, he didn't think twice before stepping into his car and driving to the local drugstore.

Now that it was summer, the sun was still high up in the sky, but it was nearing six in the evening and Yami probably had to break a world record to make it to the shop before it would close. With a small grunt, he pressed the gas pedal with his foot and practically threw the steering while to the right to make sure he would not crash into the nearest wall.

He saw the local mall and was relieved when he saw lots of people walking in and out of the huge building. After he had locked is car, he lowered his head as he walked through the doors. He had not even thought about it; he had no idea what kind of pads he was supposed to buy, and more importantly, he was a guy, he was not supposed to buy pads in the first place.

His feet had guided him to the drugstore and he glanced around, there was not one guy here. There were a couple of women looking at the shelves, most of them were looking at make-up and hair dye and other kinds of colorful products.

Yami had already decided he would buy something along with the pads, otherwise it would be even more awkward. He snatched his favorite deodorant off one of the shelves and looked around once again.

After a few minutes he found himself standing in front of a huge problem. He had found the pads, he had definitely done that, but he did not expect to find at least twenty brands and… _sizes_.

"Well, fuck," he whispered, glaring daggers at the purple and pink products. Some women had walked past him, a couple of teenage girls had giggled to themselves and one older woman had given him a small smile, muttering something about dedication.

He had never felt so humiliated in his life. The small sentences on the packages were not helping, either ("_Extra absorbent!_" and "_Leaves a natural scent!_" and the worst of them all: "_Feels light and soft!_").

Yami felt like walking out of the store when he saw the last one. "Light and soft? What even…"

He was about the grab a random package when he heard a voice. "Lost a bet?" He shut his eyes when he heard that familiar voice. Slowly looking over his shoulder, he saw Anzu standing there with her arms folded over his chest and a small smirk on her lips.

* * *

**Author's note: **Longest chapter yet~~. Around 6,500 words.

Angst, humor, romance. All in one chapter. Guh, I need to do something about this. Seriously. And if you're wondering about the wounds on Yami's fingers, that can actually happen. The strings of a guitar are pretty rough and can damage the skin pretty easily.

But yeah, Mana's here, tadaaaah~! And now Yami's in trouble. Women and their issues. Tee hee.

Review~?


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's note: **Sorry for the lack of updates. I'm a bit of a slow writer and I also have deadlines on YouTube. And my sister's getting married next week so she's all over the place. Also, there's this lovely thing called writer's block. Summer break is pretty stressful. O.o

But oh well, here I am with a new chapter. x3  
Special thanks to my beta **Drawn2Danger**~!

* * *

_The minute his idol had wrapped his arms around him, he felt like he was dreaming. He never would have thought Yugi Mutou would hug him to calm him down. The tight feeling in his chest and throat worsened; he could not say anything or do anything. A warm hand started stroking his back soothingly and Yugi's lips were close to his right ear._

_"It'll be all right. You were great and I really enjoyed your performance. I've never seen anyone wear their heart on their sleeve like that. You were very brave and absolutely amazing."_

_Yami didn't really want to admit it, but Yugi was so close to him that his nose was buried in the other's neck and his natural scent was calming him down. The very sweet scent that fitted his personality so very well was almost too good to be true and Yami felt himself being drawn to this very small detail._

_Finally, he could pull himself together and look at Yugi. Dried tears clung to his flushed cheeks and he felt very stupid for losing his cool in front of them. Yugi smiled reassuringly at him and squeezed his shoulder before he pulled back. For a minute, neither of them spoke and Yami was rather scared that he had been too dramatic and that Yugi was going to send him away._

_Singing that song about his father had been very hard and it had taken a lot of guts to write the lyrics. Mana had helped him a bit here and there, but left him alone after the first couple of lines. He had not lied when he told Yugi he had worked on the song all right (Mana had a major jet lag so she had not been able to sleep anyway) and that he got those wounds on his fingers._

_The song was not only very hard to write and to sing but also frustrating. He had been striking the chords very harshly because he got so angry after a while, damaging the tips of his delicate fingers. Deciding to get rid of the thoughts, Yami averted his gaze and gripped his guitar, slightly flinching when a sharp pain shot through his fingers._

_"All right. Well," Jounouchi said, breaking the tension. "I guess Yugi and I will call everyone tomorrow for the last meeting. We need time to think and talk about some stuff. But, honestly, you were amazing. I'm really impressed."_

_Yami's eyes lit up and he smiled gratefully. He had never received such a big compliment, let alone from one of the members of his favorite band. Jounouchi winked at him and gave Yugi a nod, who led him to the door. When he walked out of the building with the guitar still clutched in his hands, he let out a long, shaky breath he had been holding in since Yugi had let go of his shoulders. Even if he did not make it, he had gotten the biggest compliment from one of his idols, and no one could take that away from him._

_With a small, tired smile he started walking to the nearest bus stop._

* * *

"…" Yami grinned cheekily at Anzu. He had expected her to look hurt and sad, but… She didn't look hurt, on the contrary, she looked very happy and satisfied. He could almost hear her lovely thoughts; probably something about karma being oh so sweet. "I guess I deserved this."

The young woman in front of him merely shrugged and walked towards the products on the shelves.

"What are you doing here, anyway?"

"Mana came over, forgot to bring her pads and is bleeding all over my apartment now," Yami muttered matter-of-factly.

The statement made Anzu blink and then chuckle quietly. "Ah. How lovely of her to drop by. Haven't heard of her in a while and I know she loves to make an entrance and I think she did just that. If I remember correctly…"

She studied a couple of them before she grabbed a very large pink package and held it in front of Yami's face. "Here. This is her favorite brand."

Yami stared at the package as if it was some kind of alien. "Why do you even know that?"

"Do you really want to hear the stories?"

"…"

"Thought so. Just take it."

He did and watched Anzu walk away without even saying goodbye. He awkwardly shoved the deodorant and pads to his left arm and clutched the products between his upper arm and side. With his free arm, he grabbed Anzu's right arm to stop her.

"Wait," he said quietly. "We need to talk."

She turned and Yami saw why she wanted to get away from his as soon as possible. Her eyes were watery and her cheeks were flushed. He gently guided her to the cashier and started mumbling apologies while he paid. Anzu kept avoiding his gaze, absently rubbing the inside of one of her own arms. When they got out of the store, they sat down on a nearby bench and Yami took a deep breath before he spoke,

"You have every right to be mad at me. I messed up and hurt you because of it. I just," he closed his eyes, fighting the urge to swallow his words. "forgot. I had to be at the auditorium that day… Yugi called and it totally slipped my mind." Anzu looked at him for the first time and studied his face, giving Yami the impression that she expected him to keep talking. But he shook his head, telling her that he had nothing more to say.

She sighed through her nose, running an elegant hand through her brown bangs. "At least you're being honest with me. If only I had been honest with myself," she said quietly. Yami scooted a bit closer to her so he could place his hand on hers. She smiled at the small gesture and continued,

"Yami, I wanted to be with you ever since I left that school, but I was too scared to admit it. That day you called me and told me you wanted to hang out, I was so thrilled and so scared at the same time. And when you asked me out, I felt so happy, happier than I had felt in years and the first date was great and all…" A small tear rolled down her cheek and she quickly wiped it away with her free hand. "But I knew you didn't feel the same way when I grabbed your hand during the movie. You froze and it wasn't just nerves, it was you who felt it was awkward and wrong. You were the one who felt that it wasn't meant to be and I was the one who didn't want to see it."

Anzu let out a small, dry chuckle and looked at him. "Right?"

"Anzu…" Yami squeezed her hand and sucked in his lower lip, lightly nibbling on it before he continued, "I did like you in high school. I liked you a lot. I guess that, after all these years, I got over it. I thought I still liked you and that's why I asked you out. I'm sorry."

She waved him off with a gloomy smile. "It's fine. Should have listened to my women's intuition."

"What'd it say?"

"Hm," she hummed softly before she shook her head. "Never mind, I have to go now. I have to go back to my dad's company tomorrow so I have to start packing. But I'll visit every now and then to hang out." She had gotten up and was now looking down at him; her blue eyes had softened, turning her cheerless expression into a gentle one.

Yami got up, grinning. "Sounds good to me."

* * *

The next day, Yami woke up with a loud grunt. He had only gotten a few hours of sleep because he was too anxious to hear the results of yesterday's audition. He had already decided to carry his phone everywhere in case Yugi would call him and Mana had laughed at him when he told her about it, mumbling something about being a bit paranoid.

He put on his glasses and went to the bathroom to go through his usual morning routine. A rather groggily looking adult stared at him in the mirror and shook his head, rolling his eyes. Apparently Mana was already awake because he could hear her walking around in the kitchen and preparing some breakfast. His stomach growled encouragingly and he quickly stepped into the shower so he could get some breakfast soon, too.

The cold water made him want to jump out of his skin, but it did wake him up so he thought it was probably best to stay there for a while. When he finally came out of the shower, he wrapped a towel around his waist and started brushing his teeth.

Right at that moment, he heard his phone ringing on the bed.

"Hmpf!" He wanted to yelp, but he couldn't with the toothbrush stuck between his lips. He quickly spat everything out in the sink, put his glasses back on to make sure he wouldn't bump into a wall, and, not bothering to get rid of his toothbrush, ran to his room and picked up the phone. "Hello?"

_Plop._

The towel had slid down his waist and was now on the carpeted floor. With a toothbrush in his left hand and the phone in his right hand it was probably impossible to pick up the towel and wrap it around his waist again. A rather awkward cold wind brushed over his lower body and Yami cleared his throat. The person on the phone could not see even him; it was not a big deal.

"Hi, this is Yugi Mutou. I wanted to talk to you about—"

But he never knew what Yugi wanted to talk about because Mana's muffled voice came from the other side of the closed door that separated his room from the living room.

"Yami, I noticed you have two different brands of painkillers and I was wondering…" Her footsteps became louder with each word and Yami cringed. He looked down at the towel on the floor and could feel the blood rushing to his face.

"No, no, no, Mana, no. _Wait_!"

Too late. The door burst open and Yami did the first thing that came to mind. Jump on the bed face down so at least his most private area was hidden from Mana's view. His glasses were being painfully squished between the sheets and his face, but that was a small prize he had to pay.

"… if you could point out your favorite brand because— Oh." Even Yugi was silent when both people in the room were quiet. Yami made a rather awkward noise and raised his hand that was holding the toothbrush. He prayed that Mana was now looking at the ceiling and not at him.

"Get out."

"Yami, I'm so sorry…"

"_Out_."

"… Right."

The door closed again and he could hear Mana apologizing over and over again at the door, but he ignored her. His face had never felt this hot before, not even when he had to buy her pads last night. He quickly wrapped his sheets around his body, just in case and pressed the phone tightly against his ear.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Eh… What were you saying?"

"We made up our minds and would like to ask you to come over to the auditorium so we can announce the winner." Yugi sounded awfully formal and also a bit sad, as if it had hurt to say those words. Yami felt a tight knot in his chest as he processed those words.

So they had not picked him as their new band member.

"Okay," he said in a forced calm voice. "What time?"

"Around eleven, see you then." Yugi hung up and Yami could feel his heart hammering painfully against his chest. He had been so busy hiding from Mana that he had not even noticed how nervous he had been. The phone slipped out of his grip because his hands were shaking too much to keep a steady grip. The screen was still very bright and told him that he still had about thirty minutes before he had to leave to catch his bus.

Yami pushed himself off the bed and put on a random pair of boxers and a shirt, which he didn't bother to button up. He kicked the door open and let his eyes wander over his apartment. He found Mana sitting on the couch, right next to Amaya, her eyes were wide and her face was so red that it reminded Yami of a stoplight.

"Don't you ever knock?"

She jumped up from the couch and bowed. "So sorry, I thought you were—"

"It's okay, stop apologizing. Just… _knock_, next time, okay?" Yami rubbed his eyes with his index and middle finger, sighing through his nose. He still had that tight feeling in his chest and didn't want to take it out on her. Mana looked up, this time there was an apologizing smile on her face.

"I heard you coming out of the shower so I thought you were already dressed. Besides, you saw me in a towel, I guess we're even now."

Yami's blood red eyes shot fire at her. So much for keeping his temper. "You were in a towel, I was _naked_."

His friend's eyebrows disappeared under her bangs. "Okay, sorry. I forgot that you're not a morning person." He took a deep breath before he turned around to get some breakfast, ignoring her soft pleas for him to come back to finish the conversation. He was trying to keep his distance. If he kept talking to her, he would probably snap at her every two seconds, and hurting two of his close friends in less than three days was not going to happen.

The fact she had walked in on him was a bit upsetting but it was nothing compared to the phone call he had just received.

"I have to go to the auditorium today," he mumbled, cracking an egg and letting it slide into a small bowl. Mana walked up to him and put her elbow on his shoulder (they were about the same height) and watched him beat the egg with a fork.

"Ah, that's right. You forgot to tell me how the audition went yesterday. You still owe me the story," she said with a cheeky grin, patting his bare chest when she said the last few words. Yami poured the egg onto the pan and gave her a small smile. "And you look so much better with your glasses on."

"Oh," he adjusted them with his index finger and rolled his eyes, the small smile never leaving his face. "Forgot I was wearing them."

"You always wore them when we were in school and I really liked it. You should wear them more often because you look… weird without them."

"Well, that's charming."

Mana chuckled quietly before she twirled on the spot so she could walk back to the couch to finish her small bowl of cereal. Yami turned back to his omelet and tried his best to hide his disappointment. His hands were shaking with rage and sorrow; he had given it his best shot but apparently it had not been enough to convince them he was good enough to be their band member.

He turned off the stove when he was done, roughly shoved the omelet onto a plate, and started eating. Mana started rambling about her jet lag and how she had missed Japan (they hadn't had the chance to talk about that yesterday) while Yami walked over to the couch so he could sit next to her. Amaya immediately jumped over to his lap and curled up.

"Since you were working on that song all night I couldn't really sleep. I basically stared at your apartment all night, which got really boring after a while. At some point, I got up to walk around a bit and found some Heavenly Hell posters with Yugi on them." Yami gave her a blank look when she reached for the table and grabbed some rolled up posters.

"Oh," Yami said absently. The tight feeling he had in his chest worsened when Mana showed him one of his favorite posters from his teenage years. Those posters were stored somewhere in the broom closet when he moved in; they looked dusty because he hadn't touched them in years. His eyes wandered over the gigantic poster of the person he looked up to the most.

Yugi was dressed in some casual clothes, leaning against a black wall with his right shoulder. His guitar was laid down next to him, along with some ripped up sheet music and his huge violet eyes were staring down at him. Yami remember seeing these posters at a music store; there was one of each band member, but he had only bought Yugi's version.

"Most of these have Yugi on them," Mana said, rolling it up again and patting the palm of her hand with it. Then her thin lips turned into a small smirk and Yami dropped his chopsticks. "Maybe this is why you got over Anzu back in high school."

"Don't even go there," Yami said coolly, narrowing his eyes to slits. Mana got up, tapping her chin with the tip of her index finger, humming teasingly.

"It all makes sense now, you know," she said slowly. Yami murmured something under his breath before he walked back to the kitchen to put his plate in the dishwasher. "I can't blame you, Yugi's a really cute guy."

"What are you—"

"Oh, come on. When someone mentions Heavenly Hell, you always start talking about him and not those other band members. Honestly, someone usually has to shut you up because you can go on and on about it. And all these posters… I only found one or two of _all_ the band members…Ack!" She shrieked when Yami threw a plastic cup at her head (he didn't really want to hurt her) and jumped out of the way.

"Shut up."

"It's so obvious, though. I had actually expected you to have one where he's half naked, or—"

"_Mana_!" He felt so hot that it wouldn't surprise him if steam was coming out of his ears. Mana winked and quickly dashed behind the couch before he could grab her arm. She stuck out her tongue when he made a rather rude hand gesture before going back to his room to get ready to leave.

He heard her giggling quietly to herself in the living room while he buttoned up his shirt. Mana was just teasing him, but it still made him think about what she had said. Never in his entire life had he questioned his sexuality or thought he might have feelings for Yugi.

Weren't there these things called "man crushes"? Maybe that was the case because thinking of Yugi that way… He shook his head. That was just wrong. Besides, _the_ Yugi Mutou could never return those feelings (if he had them); he was merely an amateur while Yugi was a famous guitarist.

With a small sigh, he grabbed a random pair of pants and put them on. When he was ready, he gave her a quick one-armed hug and was about to leave when she called him back.

"And Yami, one more thing." Yami let go of the doorknob, looking at her over his shoulder, blinking. "You have a very nice butt."

Yami left before Mana could throw another remark at his head and made his way downstairs. Even though he hated it when she teased him, she was one of the only people who could actually cheer him up without actually trying.

Facing reality was something he definitely hated the most. If it were up to him, he would have stayed with Mana the entire day to catch up on everything, but he had to get to the auditorium. At least he would get to see Yugi and Jounouchi for the last time, that was something to look forward to.

After what felt like just a few seconds, he found himself standing in front of the building once again. The first time he was standing in the exact same spot felt like ages ago, it had felt like an endless train ride and he was finally at the last stop.

With a defeated sigh, Yami walked through the doors of said building, fighting the urge to make a run for it. This time, he had not brought his guitar because the auditions were finally over. He looked down at the small wounds on his fingers; they looked a bit irritated still, but overall quite good. The feeling of Yugi holding his hands to study his fingers had definitely been overwhelming.

He shook his head, shoving his hands back in his pockets. He reminded himself of the fact that he would never see Yugi again, anyway. He pushed open the next door and gulped when he saw the last few participants standing there with a nervous look on their faces.

Yugi and Jounouchi were standing in front of them, smiling encouragingly. For a minute, Yami felt like pushing the wall next to him to get rid of the bottled up anger, but let it slide.

"Ah, you're here," Jounouchi said, eyeing him up and down. Then, with a flick of his wrist, he gestured Yami to go stand with the others. "I think he's the last one. All right, we'll cut to the chase because some of you have been standing here for a while and we know how nervous you all are."

"Thanks," one of the guys said dryly. Some of them chuckled at this; others ignored it or pretended they had not heard it.

"So," Jounouchi smacked his hands together with a large smirk. "The new band member of Heavenly Hell, eh? I promised that I'd let Yugi announce the winner. Come on, bud, put them out of their misery."

Yugi took a small step forward and grinned at everyone. Unlike him, everyone was staring at him with wide, hungry eyes, eager to hear the results. If Yami had not known any better, he would have thought they looked like hungry wild animals. He was merely standing there with his arms folded over his chest. He had already accepted the fact he had lost.

"All right. Welcome," Yugi said with rising intonation, his smile widening. He looked at everyone and stopped when his eyes locked with someone else's. The whole room was silent, but one could still hear the nervous breaths coming out of everyone's mouths. Some of the guys were looking at their feet, mumbling things under their breaths, others were looking at the ceiling, only a few had the courage to look at Yugi.

"… _Yami Tanaka_."

* * *

**Author's note:** I think it looks a bit rushed, I'm sorry. *sweatdrop*

I will focus more on Yugi's and Yami's relationship in the next few chapters and also… *looks at her notes* reveal a bit of Yami's dark past. But there shall be fluff, of course because we all know that I love fluff a bit too much.

Please leave a review on your way out~?


End file.
